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TORONTO 


EVERYMAN'S   RELIGION 


BY 
GEORGE   HODGES 


Ifork 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 


All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1911, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  October,  1911.     Reprinted 
August,  1912  ;  August,  1913. 


Norfooob 

J.  S.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  <k  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION       .          .          3 

II.  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION  .        23 

III.  RELIGION  AND  REVELATION    ...       43 

IV.  RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE          .          .          .61 
V.  THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD           .        89 

VI.  THE  SUPREME  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION      1 1 1 

VII.  THE  CHRISTIAN  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER      131 

VIII.  THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION  .          .          .149 

IX.  RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD    .          .          .167 

X.  RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH       .          .          .191 

XL  RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL      .          .          .209 

XII.  THE  REINFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION.          .      227 

XIII.  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE          .          .          .      243 

XIV.  THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS     .          .261 
XV.  THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING                                   281 


206491O 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF 
RELIGION 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF 
RELIGION 

HE  background  of  Every- 
man's Religion  is  the  fact  of 
mystery. 

We  live  in  a  strange  world, 
surrounded  by  surprises.  After  all  the 
uncounted  centuries  of  our  residence 
here,  the  conditions  of  our  life  are  still 
imperfectly  understood.  A  part  of  the 
world  is  explained  by  science,  and  an- 
other part  of  the  world  is  explained 
by  philosophy.  But  the  two  together 
hardly  do  more  than  describe  the  sur- 
face of  things. 

Man  has  made  his  slow  way  towards 
knowledge  by  the  light  of  a  succession 
of  discoveries.  Now  one  determining 
fact  or  law,  and  then  another,  has 
come  within  our  mental  reach,  and  has 
changed  the  face  of  society.  But  we 
know  that  a  thousand  other  facts  and 
forces,  not  only  beyond  our  reach  but 
beyond  our  imagination,  await  us  and 
our  children. 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

The  increase  of  our  knowledge  serves 
to  show  the  increased  horizon  of  our 
ignorance.  We  perceive  that  the  world 
is  inconceivably  more  vast,  more  won- 
derful, and  more  mysterious  than  we 
had  thought.  At  first,  the  discoveries 
seem  to  explain  the  universe.  The 
doctrines  of  Copernicus,  of  Newton, 
and  of  Darwin  seem  to  solve  the  prob- 
lems of  our  life.  But  presently  we 
find  that  they  have  but  magnified  the 
marvel  of  the  world.  They  bring  us 
to  the  heights  of  hills  whence  we  look 
over  into  lands  unvisited  and  boundless. 

The  world  is  compact  and  common- 
place only  to  the  dull  and  ignorant. 
A  man  may  be  so  occupied  with  the 
details  of  his  business  as  to  give  the 
matter  no  attention.  He  may  keep 
his  eyes  so  closely  on  his  job  as  to  be 
unaware  of  any  background.  He  may 
be  only  vaguely  and  remotely  conscious 
of  the  mystery  in  the  midst  of  which 
he  lives.  Even  so,  there  are  inevitable 
times  when  the  situation  forces  itself 
upon  him.  The  mystery  of  birth,  the 
mystery  of  death,  and,  between  the 
two,  the  mystery  of  life,  compel  the 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

most  thoughtless  and  the  most  occupied 
to  consider  seriously  the  meaning  of 
the  world.  The  more  we  know  and 
think,  the  more  amazing  is  the  mystery 
in  which  we  live. 

Mazzini  .said  that  everybody  ought 
to  study  astronomy.  "A  man  learns 
nothing  if  he  has  not  learned  to  wonder, 
and  astronomy,  better  than  any  other 
science,  teaches  him  something  of  the 
mystery  and  grandeur  of  the  universe." 

The  background  of  mystery  is  dimly 
visible  in  the  starry  sky.  Beyond  the 
sun  and  moon,  along  those  far  horizons 
whose  incredible  distances  elude  the 
calculations  and  even  the  guesses  of 
astronomers,  stand  the  stars.  On  a 
clear  night,  the  unassisted  eye  sees  a 
thousand  stars  ;  the  telescope  sees  hun- 
dreds of  thousands ;  the  camera  sees 
tens  of  millions.  And  the  stars  are 
suns.  It  is  perceived  by  the  delicate 
instruments  of  the  observatory  that 
some  of  them  —  perhaps  all  —  have 
dark  stars  about  them,  like  the  earth 
and  other  planets  about  our  sun. 
Each  of  the  forty  million  stars  may 
have  a  solar  system  of  its  own.  We 


THE  BACKGROUND   OF   RELIGION 

read  with  a  new  understanding  the 
ancient  attribute  of  God,  "He  telleth 
the  number  of  the  stars." 

The  nearest  of  these  stars  is  so  far 
distant  that  all  ordinary  measures  of 
extension  fail.  The  length  of  the  foot- 
rule  of  the  sky  is  six  trillion  miles. 
Six  trillion  miles  is  a  light  year  :  the 
journey  which  a  ray  of  light,  travelling 
at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  and  eighty-six 
thousand  miles  a  second,  will  accom- 
plish in  twelve  months.  The  nearest 
of  the  fixed  stars  is  more  than  four  light 
years  distant  from  the  earth  :  twenty- 
six  trillion  miles.  Some  of  them  are  so 
remote  that  their  light  must  travel 
more  than  a  hundred  light  years  before 
it  meets  our  eyes :  more  than  six 
hundred  trillions  of  miles.  The  little 
constellation  of  the  Pleiades,  twinkling 
like  a  group  of  fireflies  in  a  mist,  is 
millions  of  times  farther  from  us  than 
the  sun ;  many  of  the  stars  which  com- 
pose it  are  hundreds  of  times  bigger 
than  the  sun,  and  the  spaces  which 
separate  them  are  billions  of  miles  iong.  •  • 
To  our  sight  it  is  the  smallest  constella- 
tion in  the  sky. 
6 


THE  BACKGROUND  OF   RELIGION 

Thus  we  stand  at  night  on  the  sur- 
face of  this  dark  star,  the  Earth,  and 
look  out  into  the  immeasurable  uni- 
verse. 

The  stars  are  the  symbol  of  mystery. 
They  are  the  lights  of  undiscovered 
lands  in  comparison  with  which  our 
whole  planet  is  but  the  smallest  island 
in  a  boundless  ocean.  They  make 
the  claim  of  man  to  the  ownership  of 
the  world  ridiculous.  These  vast  other 
worlds,  set  at  these  incalculable  dis- 
tances, were  made  and  are  maintained 
without  regard  to  us.  They  are  the 
result  of  forces  or  of  purposes  which 
leave  us  altogether  out  of  account.  We 
still  say,  and  never  more  sincerely  than 
in  the  light  of  all  our  present  knowl- 
edge, "When  I  consider  the  heavens, 
the  work  of  Thy  fingers,  the  moon  and 
the  stars  which  Thou  hast  ordained, 
what  is  man  that  Thou  art  mindful 
of  him?" 

The  relation  of  human  knowledge  to 
human  ignorance  is  like  the  relation  of 
the  town  to  the  stars.  Here  is  our 
own  town,  along  whose  familiar  streets 
we  walk,  with  whose  houses  we  are  ac- 


THE  BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

quainted,  where  we  have  our  various 
interests  and  occupations,  whose  area 
is  accurately  bounded  and  divided  into 
voting  districts,  this  small  space  of 
earth  wherein  we  have  our  residence ; 
and  overhead  are  the  stars. 

Some  people  see  no  farther  than  the 
street.  There  is  nothing  in  their  life 
—  at  least  in  their  customary  life  — 
which  might  not  be  included  in  a  fair 
description  of  the  town.  They  are 
like  ants  in  an  ant  hill. 

Imagine  an  ant  hill  in  a  public  park. 
Of  the  trees  and  flowers  and  spreading 
lawns,  of  the  ponds  and  the  people, 
the  ants  are  altogether  unconscious. 
There  is  a  soldiers'  monument  in  the 
park,  but  the  ants  are  unaware  of  the 
meaning  of  it ;  for  them  the  tragedy, 
the  self-sacrifice,  and  the  achievement 
which  it  commemorates  have  no  signifi- 
cance. There  is  the  statue  of  a  poet 
or  of  a  statesman  :  the  ant  hill  is  at  the 
very  base  of  it ;  but  it  belongs  to  a 
world  in  which  the  ants  have  no  place. 
There  is  a  public  meeting  in  the  park, 
and  men  standing  by  the  ant  hill  are 
thrilled  with  the  brave  words  of  a  great 
8 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

speaker;  but  the  ants  go  on,  getting 
in  their  provisions  for  the  winter.  The 
ants  at  our  feet  and  the  stars  over  our 
heads  teach  the  same  lesson.  When  we 
look  up  at  the  starry  heavens,  we  get 
an  idea  of  what  it  means  to  contemplate 
the  earth  from  the  summit  of  an  ant 
hill. 

We  are  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
realms  of  mystery.  As  the  omission 
of  a  single  sense  would  obliterate  for 
us  a  great  part  of  the  world  of  our 
present  knowledge,  so  the  addition  of 
a  sense  would  bring  into  our  conscious- 
ness new  conditions  of  existence,  won- 
derful beyond  imagination.  In  the 
midst  of  these  we  live,  without  perceiv- 
ing them  ;  or  faintly  guessing  at  them, 
as  the  keener  sight  of  a  poet,  a  phi- 
losopher, or  a  prophet  sees  dimly  some- 
thing "deeply  interfused"  which  he 
tries  in  vain  to  make  us  apprehend. 

We  cannot  go  in  any  direction  with- 
out getting  lost.  Every  blade  of  grass 
conducts  us  into  the  mystery  of  life ; 
every  pebble,  into  the  mystery  of 
matter.  We  ourselves  are  mysterious 
to  ourselves.  The  mystery  of  our 


THE  BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

birth  answers  to  the  mystery  of  our 
death.  The  mystic  words  spoken  of 
King  Arthur  in  the  legend  —  "From 
the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he 
goes"  —  are  true  of  every  one  of  us. 
After  all  the  centuries,  the  very  wind  is 
as  true  a  type  of  mystery  as  it  was 
when  Jesus  talked  with  Nicodemus. 
Between  the  ant  hills  and  the  stars 
blow  the  mysterious  winds.  In  a  world 
pervaded  through  and  through  with 
mystery,  we  live  our  mysterious  lives. 

The  response  of  man  to  this  everlast- 
ing fact  of  mystery  is  the  beginning  of 
religion. 

We  look  upon  the  world  not  only 
with  wonder,  but  with  awe.  We  have 
an  instinctive  feeling  that  the  world 
means  not  only  power,  but  personality. 
In  this  vast  universe,  we  are  not  alone. 
We  perceive  that  the  world  is  too  great 
for  us ;  the  house  is  too  big  to  have 
been  made  only  for  our  accommoda- 
tion. The  universe  of  the  stars  is  too 
ample  for  our  residence,  as  the  earth  is 
too  vast  for  the  ants.  The  inconceiv- 
able ranges  of  mystery  imply  other 
existence  than  our  own.  Both  our 
10 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

imagination  and  our  reason  go  behind 
the  mystery  of  life  to  a  maker  and 
maintainer  of  it  all.  Both  in  history 
and  in  psychology  wonder  passes  into 
worship.  The  primitive  man  fell  upon 
his  knees  and  upon  his  face  in  the 
presence  of  the  starry  sky.  And  we 
ourselves,  when  we  think  about  these 
things,  when  we  recognize  anew  the 
strangeness,  the  grandeur,  the  vastness, 
and  the  marvel  of  the  world,  are  lifted 
out  of  the  routine  of  our  customary 
thought  into  a  new  consciousness  of 
our  dependence  upon  unseen  powers. 

This  perception  of  a  divine  presence 
in  the  midst  of  the  mysteries  appears 
in  primitive  religion. 

To  the  man  who  sees  the  sky  from 
the  forest  or  from  the  desert,  undis- 
turbed by  the  intervening  roofs  of 
houses  and  by  the  shining  of  the  lights 
of  the  streets,  the  stars  are  either  divine 
powers  moving  about  by  their  own  will, 
or  are  moved  by  divine  hands.  So  he 
says  his  prayers  to  the  stars. 

This  impulse  to  adore  the  sky  sur- 
vives the  faith  on  which  it  is  founded. 
It  is  plain  to  Job  that  the  God  of  the 

ii 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

hosts  of  the  stars  made  the  cluster  of 
the  Pleiades,  and  the  bands  of  Orion, 
and  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  and  the 
Great  Bear;  yet  he  confesses  that 
when  he  beheld  the  sun  when  it  shined, 
and  the  moon  walking  in  brightness, 
his  heart  was  secretly  enticed,  and  his 
mouth  kissed  his  hand.  He  under- 
stood that  this  was  wrong,  but  he  felt 
it  to  be  a  mighty  temptation.  The 
thought  in  his  heart  had  the  sanction  of 
innumerable  generations  of  his  ances- 
tors. The  sky,  the  wind,  the  fire,  the 
earth,  are  the  natural  symbols  of 
primitive  religion. 

By  and  by,  the  substance  is  separated 
from  the  symbol,  and  the  worshipper, 
kneeling  beside  the  altar  on  which 
blazes  a  sacrificial  fire,  adores  One  who 
is  above  all  these,  unknown  and  un- 
imaginable, yet  of  present  power,  the 
determining  force  of  every  life.  Be- 
cause life  in  the  primitive  world  is 
difficult  and  beset  with  terror,  and 
beasts  and  men  are  cruel,  and  the 
world  is  full  of  fear,  the  unseen 
powers  are  feared.  In  the  presence  of 
the  mystery  of  the  universe,  man  in  his 

12 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

smallness  and  weakness  is  afraid.  He 
implores  the  powers  to  be  good  to  him. 
But  always  and  everywhere  he  per- 
ceives the  divine.  That  is  the  signif- 
icant fact.  The  details  are  crude  and 
mistaken,  but  the  recognition  is  plain. 
This  is  the  extraordinary  character- 
istic which  essentially  distinguishes  us 
from  the  other  animals.  They  see  the 
sky  as  well  as  we  do,  —  perhaps  better, 
—  but  man  alone  says  in  adoration, 
"The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God, 
and  the  firmament  showeth  His  handi- 
work." 

The  perception  of  the  divine  presence 
is  expressed  in  poetry. 

Men  try  to  put  into  words  the  feel- 
ings which  the  mystery  of  life  stirs  in 
their  souls.  There  is  something  more 
in  the  world  than  can  be  touched  or 
seen ;  something  which  cannot  be  de- 
scribed by  geologists  or  astronomers 
or  botanists  ;  some  indefinable,  elusive 
presence ;  some  light  shining  which 
never  shone  on  sea  or  shore,  —  to  this 
the  poet  is  responsive.  He  perceives  a 
presence, 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

"Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man ; 
A  motion  and  a  spirit,  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

The  Psalms  are  filled  with  this  reli- 
gious interpretation  of  the  world.  Men 
are  summoned  in  these  verses  to  praise 
the  Lord  with  thanksgiving,  "Who 
covereth  the  heaven  with  clouds,  and 
prepareth  rain  for  the  earth,  and  mak- 
eth  the  grass  to  grow  upon  the  moun- 
tains, and  herb  for  the  use  of  men ; 
Who  giveth  snow  like  wool,  and  scat- 
tereth  the  hoar-frost  like  ashes.  He 
sendeth  out  His  word  and  melteth 
them,  He  bloweth  with  His  wind  and 
the  waters  flow."  "O  praise  the  Lord 
of  heaven,  praise  Him  in  the  height. 
Praise  Him,  all  ye  angels  of  His  ;  praise 
Him,  all  His  host.  Praise  Him  sun  and 
moon ;  praise  Him  all  ye  stars  and 
light."  The  whole  world  is  called  to 
join  in  thanks  and  praise  to  Him  by 
whose  might  and  loving-kindness  all 
things  are.  And  in  this  song  humanity 
is  to  carry  the  refrain:  "Young  men 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

and  maidens,  old  men  and  children, 
praise  the  name  of  the  Lord ;  for  His 
name  only  is  excellent,  and  His  praise 
above  heaven  and  earth." 

This  perception  of  the  divine  in  the 
universe,  which  the  priest  of  the  primi- 
tive religion  endeavors  to  express  by  his 
naming  sacrifice,  and  the  poet  by  the 
music  of  his  verse,  appears  also  in  the 
devotions  of  the  mystic. 

The  mystic  waits  for  no  precedents, 
depends  on  no  authority,  asks  no  aid  of 
priest  or  sacrament,  reads  no  books. 
He  beholds  this  splendid  world,  of 
wonder  and  might  and  mystery,  and 
in  the  midst  of  it,  plain  and  clear  to  the 
sight  of  his  soul,  he  sees  God. 

In  the  Old  Testament,  he  is  Isaiah, 
saying:  "I  saw  the  Lord,  sitting  upon 
a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up ;  and  I 
heard  the  song  of  those  who  cried  one 
to  another,  'Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  the 
Lord  of  Hosts ;  the  whole  earth  is  full 
of  His  glory. ' '  In  the  New  Testament, 
he  is  St.  Paul,  saying:  "At  midday  I 
saw  in  the  way  a  light  from  heaven, 
above  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  shining 
round  about  me  and  them  which  jour- 

15 


THE  BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

neyed  with  me.  And  when  we  were 
all  fallen  to  the  earth,  I  heard  a  voice." 
The  religion  of  those  men  was  at  first 
hand.  They  spoke  out  of  their  own 
original  and  direct  experience  of  the 
divine.  The  Master  comes,  the  su- 
preme mystic,  perceiving  God  in  the 
wind,  in  the  impartial  sun  and  rain, 
in  the  harvest,  in  the  common  life. 
Looking  up  into  the  sky,  he  says, 
"  Father,  I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast 
heard  me,  and  I  know  that  Thou 
hearest  me  always." 

The  mystics  follow  in  these  steps, 
seeing  visions,  climbing  celestial  ladders 
into  paradise,  having  their  feet  on  the 
earth  and  their  heads  in  the  clouds, 
perceiving  already  the  new  heavens 
promised  of  old,  and  sure  of  the  divine 
in  the  mystery  of  the  world,  because 
they  have  looked  for  themselves,  and 
have  seen  God  with  their  own  eyes,  in 
Whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being.  For  them,  too,  the  skies  shine 
and  voices  are  heard  with  messages 
and  praises. 

When  we  ask,  what  is  the  value  of 
these  responses  to  the  mystery  of  the 
16 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

world  ?  what  is  the  validity  of  these 
recognitions  of  the  divine  in  the  uni- 
verse ?  we  find  that  they  rest  upon 
two  strong  foundations. 

They  stand  upon  the  foundation  of 
universal  experience. 

When  we  find  men  always  and  every- 
where conscious  of  a  divine  presence, 
we  perceive  that  we  are  in  possession 
of  a  compelling  testimony.  It  is  upon 
this  sort  of  evidence  that  all  our 
knowledge  proceeds.  When  it  is  ob- 
served that  always  and  everywhere 
there  is  a  tendency  of  material  bodies 
toward  the  earth,  the  universal  fact 
signifies  a  universal  law.  When  we 
observe  that  man  is  inevitably  and 
invincibly  religious,  that  the  impulse 
to  pray  is  in  all  races  and  conditions  of 
men,  and  that  the  devotion  of  the 
primitive  priest,  the  emotion  of  the 
poet,  and  the  confidence  of  the  mystic 
are  expressions  of  a  common  human 
consciousness,  we  perceive  that  there  is 
something  to  which  this  consciousness 
is  a  response. 

Life  is  not  made  up  of  eating  and 
drinking,  of  working  and  sleeping,  or  of 

c  17 


THE   BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

the  interests  and  the  pleasures  which 
compose  so  considerable  a  part  of  the 
common  day,  nor  does  it  consist  in 
the  abundance  of  the  things  which  we 
possess.  It  is  not  contained  within  the 
limits  of  any  journey  by  land  or  sea. 
We  rush  about  with  heads  down,  upon 
this  errand  and  upon  that,  but  overhead 
shine  the  reminding  stars.  And  in  the 
midst  of  the  stars,  as  in  the  midst  of  all 
our  most  customary  experiences,  in  the 
heart  of  the  unescapable  mystery  of 
our  existence,  dwells  the  divine. 

And  this,  to  which  the  universal 
experience  bears  witness,  is  evidenced 
also  by  reasonable  inference. 

We  argue  from  the  known  to  the 
unknown.  We  interpret  the  world  by 
our  understanding  of  ourselves.  The 
highest  form  of  being  of  which  we  are 
conscious  is  man,  with  personality, 
will,  reason,  and  conscience.  When  we 
would  go  beyond  that  vague  sense  of 
the  divine  in  the  world  which  is  instinc- 
tive with  us,  and  somehow  present  the 
divine  to  our  imagination  and  our  faith, 
we  cannot  do  other  than  begin  with  our 
own  selves.  It  is  plain  that  the  soul 
18 


THE  BACKGROUND   OF  RELIGION 

of  the  universe  is  in  no  way  inferior 
to  us.  All  that  is  best  in  us  must 
somehow  exist  in  Him.  All  our  good 
qualities  must  have  their  counterparts 
in  Him.  The  Divine  Being,  the  Soul  of 
the  Universe,  Who  dwells  in  the  light 
which  no  man  may  approach  unto,  and 
Who  is  revealed  in  the  fact  of  mystery, 
is  made  manifest  —  so  far  as  He  can 
be  manifested  to  our  understanding  — 
in  our  nature,  created  in  His  image. 

Here  is  the  background  of  religion. 
This  is  the  idea  of  the  world  in  which  all 
worship  is  contained.  When  the  world 
is  thought  of  in  this  way,  worship  is 
imperative.  This  is  that  gravity  of 
mind,  that  sense  of  wonder,  of  awe,  of 
reverence,  in  which  all  flowers  and  fruits 
of  religion  grow  as  in  a  fertile  soil. 
The  Christian  faith  is  contained  in  it, 
as  the  tree  is  in  the  seed.  Religion  is  a1 
recognition  of  the  meaning  of  the  world. 
The  sense  of  it  may  be  subordinated  or 
even  effaced  by  ways  of  living  which 
make  people  blind  and  deaf  to  the  great 
facts  of  life,  but  the  facts  recall  us. 
Even  they  who  live  for  the  most  part 
without  God  in  the  world  come  to  some 

19 


THE  BACKGROUND  OF  RELIGION 

consciousness  of  Him  in  the  midst  of 
the  supreme  crises  of  their  joy  or  sorrow. 
None  of  us  is  as  sensitive  as  he  ought 
to  be  to  the  divine  presence.  But  the 
divine  is  present.  We  have  only  to 
look  about  us  with  an  understanding 
heart.  We  lift  up  our  eyes  unto  the 
hills  from  whence  cometh  our  help, 
and  from  the  hills  to  the  stars,  and  from 
the  stars  to  Him  who  made  the  stars. 


20 


THE  FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS 
OF  RELIGION 


THE  FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF 
RELIGION 


HE  background  of  religion  is 
the  presence  of  the  mystery 
of  the  world.  But  this  mys- 
tery, when  we  consider  it 
attentively,  resolves  itself  into  two 
fundamental  facts  :  the  being  of  God 
and  the  soul  of  man.  They  are  so 
fundamental  that  without  them  reli- 
gion is  impossible,  while  with  them 
religion  is  imperative. 

Without  God  and  the  soul,  religion 
is  impossible. 

For  religion  consists  in  the  relation 
between  the  soul  and  God.  The  sym- 
bol of  that  relation  may  be  a  sacrifice, 
wherein  man  takes  of  his  best  and  offers 
it  to  the  unseen  powers ;  it  may  be  a 
sacrament,  wherein  man,  holding  out 
hands  of  prayer  and  expectation,  asks 
for  help  from  heaven  and  enters  into 
communion  with  the  spiritual  world ; 
it  may  be  a  creed,  wherein  man  pro- 

23 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

claims  his  understanding  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  his  interpretation  of  experi- 
ence, and  his  faith  in  the  invisible ;  it 
may  be  a  life,  lived  according  to  the 
instructions  of  conscience.  Some  rela- 
tion between  man  and  God  is  necessary 
to  religion.  There  must  be  a  soul  to 
speak,  and  God  to  answer. 

And  with  God  and  the  soul,  religion 
is  imperative. 

Whoever  is  conscious  of  God  above 
and  of  the  soul  within  must  enter  into 
the  relation  which  that  consciousness 
implies.  The  consciousness  may  be 
dim,  being  obscured  by  dulness  of 
mind,  or  by  hard  conditions  of  life,  or 
by  evil  courses ;  it  may  be  felt  but 
rarely  :  but  the  crises  disclose  it.  They 
who  imagine  themselves  to  be  living 
without  God  in  the  world,  and  who  seem 
both  to  themselves  and  to  their  neigh- 
bors to  be  getting  along  very  com- 
fortably under  that  condition,  come 
swiftly  and  surely  into  another  mind 
when  a  great  joy  or  a  great  sorrow  dis- 
pels for  a  moment  the  conventional 
satisfaction  which  hides  the  supreme 
realities. 
24 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

The  expression  of  the  consciousness 
of  God  and  of  the  soul  may  not  be 
made  in  the  accustomed  ways.  The 
man  may  not  go  to  church,  nor  account 
himself  as  belonging  to  the  company  of 
the  religious.  But  he  is  religious  after 
all ;  inevitably  and  invincibly  reli- 
gious. The  habit  of  public  worship  is 
admirable,  but  it  is  only  an  aid  to 
religion ;  it  is  not  of  itself  religion. 
There  is  an  immeasurable  amount  of 
silent  but  sincere  religion ;  a  great, 
unknown  number  of  persons  who, 
though  they  are  not  seen  in  the  churches, 
are  endeavoring  in  their  own  way  to 
live  the  spiritual  life.  They  care  about 
these  things.  They  believe  in  God 
and  in  the  soul,  and  they  think  some  of 
the  thoughts,  and  pray  some  of  the 
prayers,  and  do  many  of  the  deeds 
which  that  belief  implies.  It  is  from 
this  multitude  of  the  unsuspected 
saints  that  they  will  come  whom  Jesus 
describes  as  meeting  the  awards  of  the 
final  judgment  with  a  great  surprise. 

To  prove  the  fundamental  facts  of  re- 
ligion is  very  difficult.  But  this  diffi- 
culty is  in  no  way  peculiar  to  religion. 

25 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

It  arises  in  part  from  the  nature  of 
things.  God  and  the  soul  cannot  be 
seen  or  felt  or  tested  by  the  senses. 

A  generation  ago,  it  was  commonly 
held  by  men  of  science  that  the  facts 
which  cannot  be  proved  by  the  senses 
are  not  facts.  They  are  beliefs  or 
guesses.  All  facts,  it  was  said,  can  be 
stated  in  terms  of  matter.  Both 
science  and  philosophy  were  materi- 
alistic. But  this  was  only  the  tem- 
porary effect  of  the  amazing  progress  of 
the  age  in  natural  science,  in  the  dis- 
covery and  application  of  natural  forces. 
So  many  wonders  were  at  that  time 
coming  into  view  in  the  earth  and  in 
the  stars,  so  many  old  problems  were 
being  solved  by  the  perception  of 
universal  laws  of  nature,  that  it  ap- 
peared as  if  these  laws  would  explain 
everything.  Men  confidently  antici- 
pated the  abolition  of  mystery.  They 
expected  to  be  able  to  interpret  the 
whole  world,  with  God  and  the  soul 
included,  in  terms  of  nature,  as  the 
action  of  material  forces,  as  a  combina- 
tion of  material  facts. 

To-day,  the  pendulum  of  thought 
26 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

swings  back.  The  emphasis  of  interest 
passes  from  chemistry  to  psychology. 
A  whole  new  range  of  facts  comes  into 
sight.  Men  said,  Oxygen  is  a  fact, 
carbon  is  a  fact,  hills  and  stars  are 
facts.  But  it  is  now  perceived  that 
consciousness  is  a  fact;  personality  is 
a  fact;  memory,  reverence,  affection, 
faith,  are  facts.  It  is  plain  that  there 
is  a  multitude  of  mightily  important 
facts  which  cannot  be  seen  or  tested 
by  the  senses.  It  is  true  that  God  and 
the  soul  cannot  be  proved  by  the  tests 
of  the  senses.  But  this  is  also  true  of 
matter  itself.  The  nature  of  matter 
eludes  all  material  tests.  The  exist- 
ence of  matter  cannot  be  proved  by 
instruments  of  precision ;  neither  can 
life,  nor  will,  nor  personality;  nor  the 
soul,  nor  God. 

The  difficulty  of  proving  the  funda- 
mental facts  of  religion,  which  thus 
arises  from  the  nature  of  things,  is 
further  increased  by  the  nature  of  man. 

These  facts  are  not  only  spiritual, 
but  moral.  That  means  that  the  per- 
ception of  them  depends  on  character. 
They  are  not  only  outside  the  scope  of 

27 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

instruments  of  precision ;  they  are  also 
beyond  the  range  of  processes  of  reason. 
They  depend  on  the  character  of  him 
who  judges.  And  here,  again,  they 
share  this  condition  with  other  sides  of 
life.  The  difficulty  is  real  and  great, 
but  it  is  in  no  way  peculiar  to  religion. 
It  belongs  also  to  art  and  music  and 
letters. 

How  shall  we  convince  the  unappre- 
ciative  ?  How  shall  we  answer  one 
who  maintains  that  the  works  of  the 
old  masters  are  all  foolish,  and  are  not 
to  be  compared  with  the  pictures  in 
the  illustrated  magazines ;  or  who  be- 
lieves that  the  old  sculptures  in  the 
museums  ought  to  be  thrown  out  with 
other  broken  and  battered  things  upon 
the  rubbish  heap  ?  How  shall  we  argue 
with  the  Shah  of  Persia  who  was 
greatly  pleased  with  the  tuning  of  the 
orchestra,  and  greatly  bored  by  the 
symphony  ?  How  shall  we  persuade 
those  who  do  not  care  for  poetry  ? 
Here  is  the  book  which  to  us  is  filled 
with  noble  thought,  splendidly  ex- 
pressed, a  book  of  joy,  of  help,  of 
inspiration,  which  we  have  read  so 
28  ' 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

often  that  we  know  a  great  part  of  it 
by  heart ;  and  to  this  book  our  neigh- 
bor is  altogether  indifferent,  he  turns 
its  leaves  and  lays  it  down,  to  him  it 
has  no  value.  What  shall  we  say  ? 
How  shall  we  prove  that  the  book  is  a 
great  book  ?  How  shall  we  establish 
against  incredulity  the  excellence  of  the 
art  or  of  the  music  which  ministers  to 
our  souls  ? 

These  illustrations  are  a  commen- 
tary on  the  words  of  Jesus,  "The  pure  in 
heart  shall  see  God."  The  sight  of  the 
divine  is  not  a  reward  given  to  the  pure 
in  heart,  but  it  is  an  experience  which 
is  conditioned  upon  purity  of  heart  as 
the  sight  of  the  world  is  conditioned 
upon  good  eyes.  Thus  it  is  said  again 
that  in  order  to  know  the  doctrine, 
whether  it  be  of  God,  we  must  live  the 
life.  One  whose  concerns  are  wholly 
material,  whose  interests  are  altogether 
of  the  body,  is  thereby  incapacitated. 
The  indifference  or  unbelief  of  such  a 
one  is  no  verdict  on  the  fundamental 
facts,  but  on  the  mind  which  is  unap- 
preciative  of  the  facts ;  as  the  distaste 
of  the  reader  for  the  book  may  be  a 

29 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS   OF  RELIGION 

verdict  not  upon  the  book,  but  upon  the 
reader. 

When  we  say,  then,  that  the  funda- 
mental facts  of  religion  are  difficult 
to  prove,  we  cast  no  doubt  upon  the 
facts.  We  only  affirm  that  they  have 
the  quality  of  all  fundamental  facts. 
They  are  difficult  to  prove  because  of 
the  nature  of  things,  like  life  and  will 
and  personality ;  and  they  are  difficult 
to  prove  because  of  the  nature  of  man, 
like  music  and  art  and  letters. 

Proof  is  difficult,  but  there  are  two 
kinds  of  strong  evidence. 

There  is  the  evidence  of  the  uncom- 
mon experience  of  uncommon  people. 

I  mean  the  poets,  the  prophets,  the 
mystics,  who  come  to  the  realization  of 
God  by  direct  approach,  who  perceive 
God  and  the  soul  by  the  exercise  of 
faculties  which  in  them  are  extraordi- 
narily developed.  And  I  mean  the 
philosophers,  who  come  to  the  percep- 
tion of  God  and  the  soul  by  the  ap- 
proach of  reason,  finding  God  in  the 
order  of  the  world,  and  the  nature  of 
God  in  the  nature  of  man,  being  able 
to  work  out  these  conclusions  by  virtue 

30 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

of  unusual  gifts  of  intellect,  so  that  they 
make  discoveries  in  the  spiritual  world 
as  other  men  make  discoveries  in  un- 
travelled  lands.  These  uncommon  peo- 
ple assert  these  fundamental  facts  on 
the  basis  of  their  uncommon  experience. 

And  there  is  another  evidence,  in  the 
common  experience  of  common  people. 

The  fundamental  facts  of  religion, 
as  of  life,  rest  on  broad  bases.  They 
are  not  dependent  on  the  vision  of  any 
prophet,  on  the  dream  of  any  mystic, 
nor  on  the  logic  of  any  philosopher. 
They  rest  on  common  sense.  And 
common  sense  is  the  invincible  asser- 
tion of  the  human  mind.  It  is  the  thing 
which  we  must  say,  no  matter  what 
arguments  may  be  urged  to  the  con- 
trary. 

For  example,  philosophers  have 
doubted  the  existence  of  the  material 
world  ;  or,  at  least,  have  denied  that  it 
corresponds  to  its  impression  on  our 
senses.  And  it  is  manifestly  true  that 
our  knowledge  of  the  material  world  is 
of  necessity  derived  from  our  senses, 
which  are  only  five  in  number,  and 
every  one  of  them  notoriously  imper- 

31 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

feet.  But  this  doubt  does  not  affect 
us.  We  do  not  care  what  the  phi- 
losophers say.  We  are  satisfied  that 
our  knowledge  of  the  world  is  sufficient 
for  all  practical  purposes.  We  take 
the  world  on  the  evidence  of  common 
sense. 

Also,  philosophers  have  doubted  the 
freedom  of  the  will.  All  things,  they 
say,  are  determined  for  us.  We  act 
by  necessity.  We  have  no  choice. 
And  these  conclusions  they  draw  not 
only  from  metaphysics,  but  from  the- 
ology. But  this  doubt  makes  no  differ- 
ence with  us.  We  may  not  be  able  to 
answer  the  arguments  of  the  phi- 
losophers. They  may  prove  till  we  are 
helpless  and  speechless  that  neither 
the  will  nor  the  world  has  any  true 
existence.  But  somehow,  we  know 
better. 

We  may  listen  likewise  to  the  reason- 
ing which  forbids  us  to  believe  in  God 
and  the  soul.  It  is  not  necessary  for 
our  peace  of  mind  to  be  able  to  contra- 
dict it.  The  reasoning  may  appear  in- 
vincible. The  chain  of  logic  may  bind 
us  hand  and  foot ;  we  may  have  no 

32 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

answer;  but  we  know  better.  We  all 
know  better.  Against  all  doubt,  we 
set  the  barrier  of  common  sense. 

Thus  we  perceive  that  man  has 
always  believed  in  God  and  in  the  soul. 
Everywhere,  the  world  over,  and 
through  all  time,  is  the  presence  of 
mystery.  And  in  the  mystery  of  the 
world  men  have  always  found  the  be- 
ginning of  religion.  It  is  as  universal 
as  humanity.  Faith  in  God  is  as  char- 
acteristic of  man  as  the  love  of  our 
neighbor.  Each  of  these  human  char- 
acteristics has  appeared  under  strange 
forms,  has  begun  in  crude  manners,  has 
grown  out  of  unpromising  beginnings, 
has  only  gradually  and  very  slowly 
come  into  clearness,  into  excellence, 
into  its  strength ;  and  there  are  indi- 
viduals in  every  community  who  seem 
to  contradict  them  both.  But  thus 
they  are.  Man  is  a  social  and  religious 
being;  and  as  religious  as  social. 

Religion  is  a  universal  human  fact. 
The  earliest  traces  of  man,  away  back 
in  the  ages  of  ice,  show  him  burying  in 
the  grave  of  his  friend  that  which  may 
be  of  use  to  one  who  has  survived  death  ; 

D  33 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

he  knows  that  even  after  the  body,  the 
soul  lives.  And  the  first  clear  sight  of 
man  reveals  him  with  hands  uplifted, 
making  his  prayer  to  God.  The  funda- 
mental facts  of  religion  are  the  com- 
mon property  of  the  race.  They  are 
validated  by  the  common  sense  of 
common  men. 

Moreover,  we  perceive  that  the  af- 
firmation of  God  and  of  the  soul  brings 
the  world  and  all  our  life  into  harmony 
and  reason,  while  a  denial  throws  us 
into  immediate  and  inextricable  con- 
fusion, and  defeats  not  only  our  reli- 
gious aspirations,  but  our  processes  of 
thought.  Then  we  argue  that  the 
explanation  of  the  universe  which  works 
best  is  most  likely  to  be  true.  We 
bring  the  matter  to  the  test  which 
determines  the  validity  of  a  universal 
law :  does  the  law  actually  work  ? 
does  it  interpret  the  facts  ? 

Of  course,  a  great  amount  of  mystery 
remains,  in  religion  as  in  science,  and 
there  are  questions  unanswered  and 
perhaps  unanswerable.  But  we  expect 
that.  In  this  vast  universe  of  mystery, 
wherein  our  place  is  so  microscopic, 

34 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

and  wherein,  as  a  wise  man  says, 
"Nobody  knows  a  seven  billionth  of 
one  per  cent  about  anything,"  difficul- 
ties are  certain  to  survive  all  explana- 
tion. But  the  fundamental  assertions 
of  religion  interpret  so  much  of  the 
world  with  satisfaction  that  we  set 
down  the  remaining  difficulties  and 
mysteries  to  the  account  of  our  igno- 
rance. Religion  makes  the  world  intel- 
ligible. The  fundamental  certainties,' 
which  in  philosophy  are  called  convic- 
tions and  in  religion  are  called  beliefs, 
the  consciousness  of  the  being  of  God 
and  of  the  soul  of  man,  explain  both 
our  observation  and  our  experience  of 
life. 

What  do  the  fundamental  facts  of 
religion  mean  ?  They  mean  a  thousand 
things.  They  imply  religion  in  all  its 
details  and  consequences.  But  in  the 
large  they  signify  the  everlasting  re- 
ality of  the  life  of  the  spirit. 

There  is  a  world  within  our  con- 
sciousness whose  vital  phenomena,  in- 
stead of  being  light,  heat,  motion,  are 
will,  love,  reverence,  faith,  the  virtues, 
prayer.  In  that  world,  it  is  our  privi- 

35 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

lege  to  live.  A  good  working  descrip- 
tion of  life  is  that  which  defines  it  as 
response  to  environment.  We  live  in 
proportion  as  we  are  responsive  to  our 
surroundings.  In  order  to  find  out 
whether  a  dog  lying  by  the  road  is 
asleep  or  dead,  the  thing  to  do  is  to 
poke  him  with  a  stick ;  if  he  does  not 
respond,  he  is  a  dead  dog.  A  stone  is 
dead  because  it  does  not  respond  to 
anything.  A  plant  lives,  and  is  sensi- 
tive to  sun  and  wind  and  rain  and 
earth.  An  animal  lives  more  because 
it  is  in  relation  with  more  of  life ;  and 
a  man  lives  more  and  more  according 
as  his  correspondence  with  the  world 
is  widened  and  varied.  If  he  has  five 
sound  senses,  he  lives  that  much.  If 
he  knows  astronomy,  geology,  and  bot- 
any, he  lives  so  much  the  more.  If  he 
understands  and  appreciates  books  and 
art  and  music,  he  increases  both  the 
quantity  and  the  quality  of  his  life. 
Then,  beyond  and  within  the  world  to 
which  all  these  belong,  is  the  world  of 
the  spirit. 

Religion  is  an  interpretation  of  the 
mystery  of  the  world.     It  is  an  answer 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

to  questions  concerning  which  both 
science  and  philosophy  are  silent.  It 
tells  us  whence  we  came  and  whither 
we  go.  It  asserts  the  presence  and  the 
preeminence  of  the  spirit  in  us  and  in 
the  world  about  us.  It  declares  that 
all  matter  and  all  life  have  worthy 
meanings. 

Religion  is  also  the  experience  which 
belongs  to  a  world  thus  interpreted. 
It  is  the  response  of  the  soul  of  man  to 
the  life  of  God.  It  can  be  had  in  its 
fulness  only  by  the  cultivation  of  the 
soul.  One  whose  body  is  developed, 
and  whose  mind  is  developed,  while  his 
soul  is  undeveloped,  belongs  to  the 
defective  classes.  One  whose  interests 
are  altogether  in  his  business,  or  in  his 
recreation,  has  something  the  matter 
with  him.  He  is  living  a  narrow, 
limited,  and  defective  life.  He  is  miss- 
ing a  great  range  of  human  privilege. 
He  is  failing  to  avail  himself  of  the  best 
rights  of  man.  He  perceives  sometimes, 
when  the  experiences  of  life  reveal  the 
souls  of  his  friends,  that  there  is  a  joy, 
an  uplift,  a  strength,  a  blessing,  in 
which  he  has  no  part. 

37 


Thus  we  understand  the  words  of 
Jesus,  when  He  said,  "I  am  come 
that  they  may  have  life,  and  that 
they  may  have  it  more  abundantly." 
The  purpose  of  religion  is  not  only 
the  salvation  of  man  out  of  his 
sins.  Its  part  is  not  merely  that 
of  the  police  whose  business  is  to 
protect  society  and  keep  the  peace. 
Its  function  is  not  simply  to  pro- 
hibit, like  a  series  of  warning  signs. 
It  is  to  direct  us  into  happiness.  The 
characteristic  of  religion  is  abundant 
life. 

Here  man  truly  lives.  Here  he  is 
responsive  and  sensitive  to  the  whole 
of  his  environment.  Here  he  realizes 
himself.  Here  he  stands  upright  in 
the  completed  glory  of  his  normal 
manhood.  And  entering  into  the  ful- 
ness of  life,  he  enters  also  into  the  ful- 
ness of  satisfaction.  He  has  learned 
the  secret  of  abiding  happiness.  His 
heart  is  filled  with  the  joy  of  living, 
and  with  gratitude  that  he  is  alive  and 
appreciative  of  the  seen  and  of  the 
unseen.  He  goes  about  among  his 
neighbors  ;  he  looks  upon  the  earth  and 

38 


FUNDAMENTAL  FACTS  OF  RELIGION 

sky ;  he  encounters  the  experiences  of 
the  common  day ;  saying,  under  'his 
breath,  "Praise  the  Lord,  O  my  soul, 
and  all  that  is  within  me  praise  His 
holy  name." 


39 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

|HE  relation  between  the  soul 
of  man  and  the  life  of  God, 
which  constitutes  religion,  is, 
indeed,  instinctive,  but  it 
needs  to  be  made  definite.  It  cannot 
well  be  left  to  the  unaided  experience 
of  the  individual  man.  The  individual 
may  not  be  able  to  perceive  God  either 
clearly  or  truly.  By  reason  of  the 
shortcomings  of  his  mind,  or  of  the  de- 
fects of  his  character,  he  may  fall  into 
error  concerning  God,  or  may  lose  sight 
of  Him. 

Moreover,  in  so  great  a  matter  as 
this,  the  individual  needs  to  avail  him- 
self of  the  privilege  of  the  race.  In 
religion,  as  in  science,  in  art,  and  in 
politics,  he  is  entitled  to  the  results  of 
past  experience.  The  world  into  which 
he  comes  is  an  old  world.  Little  as  is 
the  total  fund  of  our  knowledge  of  it, 
such  knowledge  as  we  have  is  mightily 
useful.  On  the  basis  of  it,  each  new 

43 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

generation  begins.  We  are  the  chil- 
dren of  all  the  inventors,  reasoners, 
discoverers,  of  the  past.  We  enter 
into  their  labors.  We  are  taught  in  our 
youth  what  they  learned  with  pain  and 
patience  in  the  maturity  of  their  studies. 
We  begin  with  their  books  :  books  of 
science,  books  of  geography  and  history, 
books  of  religion. 

A  number  of  the  most  useful  of  the 
books  of  religion  are  bound  together 
in  the  Bible.  They  contain  the  expe- 
riences and  conclusions  of  men  who 
were  masters  of  the  religious  life.  They 
bring  to  us  the  results  of  their  study  of 
the  soul  of  man  and  of  the  being  of 
God.  They  tell  us  what  God  said  to 
them. 

Such  a  communication  from  God  to 
men  may  be  made  in  one  or  other  of 
two  ways  :  by  dictation,  or  by  inspira- 
tion. 

According  to  the  doctrine  of  dictation, 
God  has  revealed  His  will  to  men  by 
speaking  in  audible  words  out  of  the 
sky,  or  by  guiding  the  hands  of  the 
writers  of  sacred  books.  The  prophet 
by  whom,  under  these  conditions,  God 

44 


RELIGION  AND   REVELATION 

speaks,  contributes  nothing  himself. 
He  is  simply  the  recipient  of  a  divine 
communication,  and  comes  to  us  from 
God  as  a  servant  sent  on  an  errand  with 
a  message.  An  example  of  this  doctrine 
is  the  Koran ;  which  Mohammed,  in  a 
vision,  saw  in  the  library  of  heaven, 
and  there  copied  page  by  page,  and 
word  by  word.  A  symbol  of  it  is  the 
ancient  bas-relief  of  Hammurabi,  king 
of  Babylon,  receiving  his  code  of  law 
from  the  hands  of  the  sun-god. 

The  Christians  of  the  early  church 
were  restrained  from  adopting  the  doc- 
trine of  dictation  by  certain  convinc- 
ing facts. 

They  were  influenced  by  the  fact  of 
the  unbound  book. 

When  the  Christian  religion  began, 
there  was  no  completed  Bible.  There 
was  no  book  to  which  one  could  point 
and  say,  "Behold  the  word  of  God." 
The  Old  Testament,  finished  as  to  the 
composition  of  its  books,  was  unfinished 
as  to  their  collection.  In  the  synagogue 
the  Bible  was  kept  in  a  box,  and  this 
box,  being  opened,  was  found  to  con- 
tain a  considerable  number  of  rolls  of 

45 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

manuscript.  On  some  of  these  rolls 
the  books  of  the  law  were  written,  from 
Genesis  to  Deuteronomy ;  on  others 
the  books  of  the  prophets.  But  the 
number  of  the  rolls  differed.  There 
was  still  in  progress  a  long  debate  as  to 
the  admission  or  rejection  of  certain 
books.  Shall  we  include  in  the  Bible 
the  Song  of  Solomon,  which  is  a  collec- 
tion of  lyrics  of  love  with  no  reference 
to  religion  ?  Shall  we  include  the  book 
of  Esther,  in  which  the  name  of  God  is 
not  mentioned  ?  What  shall  we  do 
with  the  books  of  the  Maccabees,  with 
the  romance  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon, 
with  the  philosophy  of  Ecclesiastes 
which  appears  to  deny  the  future  life  ? 
These  questions  were  not  answered 
till  the  end  of  the  first  Christian 
century.  In  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
the  Old  Testament  was  an  unbound 
book,  whose  table  of  contents  had  not 
been  determined. 

As  for  the  New  Testament,  one 
church  had  a  copy  of  one  Gospel,  an- 
other had  a  copy  of  another ;  here  were 
certain  epistles  of  St.  Paul,  there  were 
other  epistles.  Gradually,  by  inter- 


RELIGION  AND   REVELATION 

change  and  transcription  of  these  treas- 
ures, the  possessions  of  the  different 
churches  increased.  But  even  then, 
there  were  books  whose  value  was 
debated.  What  shall  we  say  about 
the  epistle  of  St.  James,  and  about  the 
epistle  of  St.  Barnabas  ?  What  shall 
we  do  about  the  Revelation  of  John, 
and  about  the  Revelation  of  Enoch  ? 
These  questions  were  not  finally  an- 
swered till  the  end  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. During  all  that  time  the  Bible 
was  unbound. 

The  early  Christians  were  influenced 
also  by  the  precedent  of  freedom. 

Jesus  had  dealt  very  informally  with 
the  Old  Testament.  He  had  quoted 
even  the  Commandments  without  re- 
gard to  verbal  accuracy.  He  had  criti- 
cised and  altered  the  moral  standards 
of  the  ancient  Scriptures.  The  phrase, 
"Ye  have  heard  it  said  by  them  of  old 
time,"  means,  'Ye  have  read  in  the 
Bible  thus  and  so" ;  but  "I,"  He  said, 
"tell  you  other  than  that."  And  this 
example  of  the  free  handling  of  the 
Scriptures  had  been  followed  by  the 
apostles.  When  they  met  at  Jerusalem 

47 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

to  debate  the  questions  raised  by  the 
mission  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Gentiles,  the 
chief  point  at  issue  was  the  authority 
of  the  Bible.  The  Bible,  declaring  the 
word  of  God,  set  forth  the  law  of 
Moses.  Concerning  that  law,  the  Jews 
held  a  doctrine  of  dictation.  These 
words,  they  said,  were  spoken  by  the 
mouth  of  God.  The  Christians,  as- 
sembled in  convention,  decided  not 
to  obey  the  Bible.  The  book  of  Leviti- 
cus enjoins  the  law  of  Moses,  but  it 
seems  good,  they  said,  to  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  to  us  not  to  enforce  it. 
These  precedents  of  freedom  made  it 
impossible  for  the  early  Christians  to 
hold  the  doctrine  that  the  Bible  is 
binding  in  detail  upon  the  conscience. 
Some  parts  of  it  are  true  and  in  force 
to  all  eternity,  but  other  parts  have 
only  a  temporary  value. 

In  addition  to  these  restraining  facts, 
—  the  fact  of  the  unbound  book,  and 
the  fact  of  the  precedent  of  freedom,  — • 
the  early  Christians  were  further  influ- 
enced by  the  fact  of  the  living  voice. 

Even  after  the  Bible  was  bound,  it 
was  not  a  sole  authority.  Side  by 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

side  with  the  Bible,  sometimes  inter- 
preting it,  sometimes  adding  to  it, 
was  the  church.  The  divine  promise 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  should  lead  men 
into  truth  continued  beyond  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Scripture,  and  made  the 
history  of  the  church  a  contemporary 
Bible  for  the  guidance  of  the  will  of 
man,  and  for  the  disclosure  of  the  will 
of  God.  Thus  it  was  the  church,  and 
not  the  Bible,  which  decided  that 
children  might  be  baptized.  It  was 
the  church,  and  not  the  Bible,  which 
retained  the  sacrament  of  the  breaking 
of  the  bread  and  declined  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  washing  of  the  feet. 

Long  after,  beginning  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  and  extending  into  the 
nineteenth,  a  doctrine  of  dictation  was, 
indeed,  maintained.  The  book  was 
now  bound,  the  living  voice  was  dis- 
credited by  the  queer  things  which  it 
was  reported  to  have  said  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  the  exercise  of  free- 
dom was  mainly  directed  towards  eccle- 
siastical changes.  In  the  place  of  the 
infallible  authority  of  the  church  was 
placed  the  infallible  authority  of  the 

E  49 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

Scripture,  and  this  was  logically  devel- 
oped into  theories  of  verbal  dictation 
and  inerrancy.  The  Mohammedan 
idea  of  the  Koran  became  for  the 
moment  the  Christian  idea  of  the 
Bible.  And  it  was  held  that  this  idea 
is  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
Christian  religion.  For  if  there  are 
errors  in  the  Bible,  we  have  no  reliable 
authority  in  religion.  The  necessary 
qualification  of  a  guide  is  to  be  trust- 
worthy. If  the  Bible  is  mistaken  in 
anything,  it  may  be  mistaken  —  so  ran 
the  argument  —  in  everything. 

Out  of  this  theory  of  the  method  of 
revelation,  the  Christian  faith  was 
rescued  by  two  considerations. 

First,  by  consideration  of  the  fact  that 
there  are  actually  errors  in  the  Bible. 
There  they  are :  in  science,  in  history, 
in  morals,  even  in  theology.  We  know 
that  the  world  was  not  created  in  six 
days ;  we  know  that  when  the  book  of 
Kings  gives  an  account  of  an  event  and 
the  book  of  Chronicles  gives  a  contra- 
dictory account  of  the  same  event,  they 
cannot  both  be  right ;  we  know  that 
the  imprecatory  psalms  and  the  Sermon 

So 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

on  the  Mount  teach  a  very  different 
ideal  of  conduct ;  and  we  perceive  that 
between  the  vision  of  God  walking  in 
the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Bible,  and  the  vision 
of  God,  high  and  lifted  up,  adored  by 
all  the  saints,  at  the  end  of  the  Bible, 
there  is  a  long  progress  in  spiritual 
knowledge. 

And  to  this  consideration  of  the  fact 
of  error  was  added  the  consideration  of 
the  fallacy  which  exaggerates  the  im- 
portance of  these  errors.  The  old 
proposition  —  mistaken  in  one  thing, 
mistaken  in  everything  —  may  do  very 
well  in  logic,  but  it  does  not  work  at  all 
in  actual  life.  Our  senses,  for  example, 
are  notoriously  defective.  They  are 
mistaken  not  in  one  way  only,  but 
in  a  hundred  ways,  and  bring  us  mis- 
leading reports  of  the  world  in  which 
we  live.  But  they  are  good  enough  for 
practical  purposes.  They  are  a  suffi- 
cient authority  for  our  daily  life.  So 
it  is  with  the  Bible.  Every  book  that 
ever  was  made,  in  the  Bible  or  out  of 
it,  contains  some  error;  because  no 
man  is  infallible  or  omniscient.  Error 

SI 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

and  human  nature  belong  together. 
But  errors  in  detail  do  not  invalidate 
the  book.  In  his  great  sonnet  on 
"Chapman's  Homer,"  Keats  says  that 
the  Pacific  Ocean  was  discovered  by 
Cortez.  Not  at  all ;  it  was  discovered 
by  somebody  else.  But  that  does  not 
hinder  for  a  moment  the  splendor  of 
the  sonnet.  To  hold  that  errors  dis- 
crejdit  the  supremacy  of  the  Bible  over 
the  spiritual  life  is  as  irrelevant  as  to 
dismiss  a  pilot  because  he  is  ignorant 
of  botany.  Back  comes  the  foolish 
passenger  from  an  interview  with  the 
pilot,  crying  :  "Friends,  the  ship  is  lost. 
Our  pilot  is  untrustworthy.  I  find  that 
he  knows  nothing  whatever  about  inten- 
sive farming,  that  he  is  very  imperfectly 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  cru- 
sades, and  that  his  ideas  about  the 
tariff  are  absurd."  But  it  is  the  alarm 
of  the  foolish  passenger  that  is  absurd. 
"Why,"  says  Coleridge,  "should  I 
not  believe  the  Scriptures  throughout 
dictated,  in  word  and  thought,  by  an 
infallible  Intelligence  ?  For  every  rea- 
son that  makes  me  prize  and  reverence 
these  Scriptures.  Because  the  doctrine 

52 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

in  question  petrifies  at  once  the  whole 
body  of  Holy  Writ  with  all  its  har- 
monious and  symmetrical  gradations. 
This  breathing  organism,  the  doctrine 
in  question  turns  at  once  into  a  colossal 
Memnon's  head,  a  hollow  passage  for  a 


voice." 


We  give  over,  then,  the  doctrine  of 
dictation  as  explaining  the  method  of 
the  making  of  the  Bible,  and  return  to 
the  doctrine  of  inspiration. 

It  is  true  that  in  so  doing  we  aban- 
don the  definite  for  the  indefinite. 
The  doctrine  of  dictation  may  be  stated 
clearly  and  precisely ;  the  doctrine  of 
inspiration  is  not  so  easily  defined. 
So  much  the  better.  So  much  the 
likelier  is  it  to  be  true.  For  whatever 
involves  the  element  of  the  divine 
cannot  be  brought  into  simple,  compact, 
and  complete  statement. 

According  to  the  doctrine  of  inspira- 
tion, there  are  two  kinds  of  people, 
common  people  and  uncommon  people. 

The  uncommon  people  are  distin- 
guished from  their  neighbors  by  their 
ability  to  see  more,  to  understand  more, 
and  to  do  more.  Thus  at  Athens  all 

53 


RELIGION  AND  ^REVELATION 

sorts  of  citizens  went  out  to  the  hill 
Pentelicus  to  quarry  stone  for  building. 
The  common  people  built  common- 
place houses ;  the  uncommon  people 
built  the  Parthenon.  Thus  Beethoven 
wrote  the  Fifth  Symphony  and  Shake- 
speare wrote  "  Hamlet  "  because  they 
were  uncommon  men.  The  contro- 
versy as  to  the  authorship  of  the  plays 
arises  from  the  apparent  inconsistency 
between  the  commonness  of  Shake- 
speare and  the  production  of  these 
works  of  genius.  Bacon  was  evidently 
an  uncommon  man.  So  in  science, 
Copernicus  and  Newton  were  uncom- 
mon men.  It  is  characteristic  of  these 
men,  whether  they  apply  themselves 
to  music,  to  poetry,  or  to  scientific 
investigation,  that  they  are  sensitive 
to  impressions,  and  have  an  instinctive 
understanding  of  the  uses  and  mean- 
ings of  things.  A  usual  word  to  ex- 
press this  singular  faculty  is  genius. 
But  in  religion,  the  word  is  inspiration. 
Hosea  and  Isaiah,  St.  John  and  St. 
Paul,  were  uncommon  men.  They 
were  as  alert  to  the  significance  of  the 
world  of  the  spirit  as  Copernicus  and 

54 


RELIGION  AND   REVELATION 

Darwin  were  alert  to  the  significance  of 
the  world  of  matter.  They  were  pecul- 
iarly sensitive  to  spiritual  influences. 
They  were  different,  like  Shakespeare 
and  Beethoven,  from  all  their  neighbors. 

Now,  at  infrequent  intervals,  often 
marking  great  eras  of  progress,  an  un- 
common man  perceives  a  new  truth. 
Copernicus  did.  He  saw  the  sun  stand- 
ing still.  In  comparison  with  this,  the 
adventure  of  Joshua  was  insignificant. 
To  Joshua  the  sun  seemed  to  stand  still. 
But  to  Copernicus,  there  it  stood ; 
and  there  it  stands  still  to  this  day. 
Newton  perceived  new  truth ;  Dar- 
win perceived  new  truth.  The  thing 
eludes  explanation.  Suddenly,  into  the 
mind  of  the  uncommon  man,  comes 
a  great,  new,  interpreting  knowledge. 
In  science,  this  is  called  discovery ; 
in  religion,  it  is  called  revelation. 
Suddenly,  into  the  soul  of  Abraham,  of 
Moses,  of  Isaiah,  came  a  new  knowledge 
of  God,  illuminating  life.  God  is  love, 
says  Amos.  God  is  love,  says  Hosea. 
These  are  spiritual  discoveries. 

When  we  say  that  inspiration  is  the 
same  thing  in  religion  as  genius  in  art 

55 


RELIGION  AND  REVELATION 

and  letters,  and  that  revelation  is  the 
same  thing  in  religion  as  discovery  in 
science,  we  have  not  defined  anything. 
All  of  these  conditions  and  achieve- 
ments belong  together  to  the  domain  of 
mystery.  But  we  have  taken  away  an 
artificial  distinction  between  these. 
We  have  shown  that  whatever  diffi- 
culty is  connected  with  the  divine 
disclosure  in  the  Bible  is  connected 
also  with  the  divine  disclosure  in  every 
range  of  thought  and  activity. 

The  result  of  revelation  is  the  divine 
disclosure.  It  is  not  the  communica- 
tion of  facts  in  science  or  in  history. 
The  statement  that  the  world  was 
made  in  a  week  is  of  no  scientific  assist- 
ance to  us,  but  the  statement  that  in 
the  beginning  God  made  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  is  of  everlasting  value. 
The  details  of  Hebrew  history  are  of 
no  more  significance  in  themselves  than 
the  details  of  the  history  of  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  but  the  continual  per- 
ception of  the  divine  presence  and  pur- 
pose in  those  old  annals  interprets  all 
the  history  of  the  world.  Neither  is 
revelation  the  disclosure  of  an  order  of 

56 


RELIGION  AND   REVELATION 

worship  or  of  a  system  of  morals. 
The  old  regulations  are  outworn  and 
abandoned.  What  is  revealed  is  the 
universal  endeavor  of  man  to  unite 
himself  with  God,  and  to  conform  his 
life  to  the  will  of  God. 

Revelation  is  the  disclosure  of  God : 
of  the  care  of  God,  evidenced  in  nature, 
but  uncertainly ;  of  the  righteousness 
of  God,  to  which  history  bears  witness, 
but  not  always  convincingly ;  of  the 
love  of  God,  which  we  know,  indeed, 
by  our  individual  experience,  but  not 
with  unfailing  assurance.  To  reenforce 
and  strengthen  the  faith  which  rests 
upon  our  common  experience,  come 
these  strong,  revealing  visions  of  the 
uncommon  people :  of  the  prophets, 
speaking  to  the  fathers ;  of  Jesus 
Christ,  speaking  in  the  very  accents  of 
the  divine,  to  us.  We  may  guess  and 
doubt,  but  these  men  know.  They 
have  heard  the  voice  of  God.  And 
what  that  voice  has  said  to  them  they 
have  written  down,  as  best  they  could, 
in  the  Book  of  Inspiration  and  of 
Revelation,  in  the  Word  of  God,  for 
the  saving  of  our  souls. 

57 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

|HE  books  of  the  Bible,  which 
thus  put  us  in  possession  of 
the  experiences  and  conclu- 
sions of  the  masters  of  reli- 
gion concerning  the  being  of  God  and 
the  soul  of  man,  are  made  difficult  to- 
day to  many  men  because  some  of 
them  contain  accounts  of  miracles. 
These  miracles  were  formerly  aids  to 
faith,  but  they  do  not  now  so  securely 
assist  us.  A  new  knowledge  of  the 
order  of  the  world  has  changed  our 
minds  about  the  miracles.  It  has 
given  us  a  somewhat  different  under- 
standing both  of  their  nature  and  of 
their  importance. 

Miracles  are  described  in  the  Bible 
as  "signs  and  wonders."  They  compel 
our  admiration  and  astonishment ;  they 
are  wonders.  They  assure  us  of  the 
existence,  the  power,  and  the  personal 
interest  of  God ;  they  are  signs.  These 

61 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

two  elements  must  be  in  combination 
to  make  a  miracle.  A  mighty  wind 
which  blows  a  path  across  a  sea  is  a 
marvel.  If  it  thus  makes  a  path,  at 
the  right  moment,  for  a  company  of 
escaping  slaves,  it  is  a  miracle. 

The  essential  value  of  a  miracle  is  in 
its  disclosure  of  a  divine  personality. 
The  result  which  the  miracle  accom- 
plishes may  be  of  high  importance; 
the  achievement  may  be  a  deliverance, 
a  recovery,  or  a  victory ;  but  the 
supreme  satisfaction  is  in  the  assur- 
ance that  God  cares.  It  is  made  plain 
that  the  unseen,  heavenly  powers  are 
aware  of  us,  and  interested  in  us,  and 
on  our  side. 

Such  an  assurance  we  desire  greatly. 
The  background  of  religion  is  in  the 
presence  of  mystery ;  the  fundamental 
facts  of  religion  are  the  being  of  God 
and  the  soul  of  man ;  and  these  are 
given  a  certain  definiteness  by  the 
evidence  of  the  uncommon  people  whose 
spiritual  experiences  are  recorded  in 
the  Bible.  But  the  heart  of  the  matter 
is  a  sense  of  relation  between  man  and 
God.  It  is  indeed  a  great  matter  to 
62 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

be  able  to  look  out  into  the  surround- 
ing mystery  of  the  world  and  cry, 
"O  God!"  But  it  is  a  far  greater 
matter  to  be  able  to  go  on  and  complete 
the  sentence  in  the  words  of  the 
psalm,  crying,  "O  God,  thou  art  my 
God!"  That  is  the  essential  thing. 

We  are  perceiving,  however,  that 
this  essential  relationship  may  be  cer- 
tified without  the  evidence  of  what  are 
commonly  called  miracles.  We  dis- 
cover, as  we  read  the  Bible,  that  the 
Supreme  Spiritual  Master,  while  He 
cast  no  doubt  upon  the  miraculous, 
and  daily  worked  miracles,  neverthe- 
less gave  to  this  whole  side  of  the 
religious  life  a  distinctly  subordinate 
place.  He  was  Himself  conscious  of 
the  fatherly  presence  of  the  Unseen 
by  other  testimonies. 

A  significant  example  is  His  refusal 
to  cast  Himself  down  from  a  pinnacle  of 
the  temple.  He  was  tempted,  He  said, 
to  do  that.  In  the  desert,  in  prepara- 
tion for  His  ministry,  He  was  definitely 
rejecting  certain  possible  principles  of 
action.  One  of  them  He  expressed 
by  this  dramatic  symbol.  He  stands 

63 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

in  vision  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple. 
The  great  court  below  is  filled  with 
worshippers.  Shall  He  come  down  in 
their  sight  upheld  by  wings  of  angels  ? 
The  effect  will  be  to  make  it  evident 
to  all  the  people  that  He  is  a  super- 
natural person.  He  is  accredited  by 
miracle.  Thus  attested,  thus  divinely 
commended,  He  will  be  accepted.  The 
priests  will  receive  Him,  the  Pharisees 
will  welcome  Him,  the  people  will 
adore  Him.  The  work  of  John  the 
Baptist  in  preparing  the  way  of  the 
Lord  will  be  insignificant  in  compari- 
son with  the  splendid  service  of  these 
attendant  angels. 

The  meaning  is  plain.  To  leap  from 
a  height  for  the  sake  of  defying  the  law 
of  gravitation  never  entered  into  the 
mind  of  Jesus.  But  to  perform  a 
compelling  and  convincing  miracle,  to 
begin  His  ministry  not  as  a  carpenter 
from  Nazareth  but  as  a  messenger  from 
Heaven,  —  this  was  an  attractive  and 
reasonable  proposition. 

Why  not  do  it  ?  Because  He  knew 
the  heart  of  man.  He  knew  the  dif- 
ference between  a  faith  which  is  founded 


RELIGION  AND   MIRACLE 

in  amazement,  and  a  faith  which  is 
founded  in  quiet,  gradual  understand- 
ing and  appreciation. 

He  expressed  the  difference  with  per- 
fect clearness  in  the  parable  of  the  rich 
man  and  the  beggar.  The  rich  man 
in  torment  prays  that  the  beggar  may 
be  sent  to  warn  his  brothers,  lest  they, 
following  in  his  steps,  come  to  that 
same  place.  The  answer  is,  "They 
have  Moses  and  the  prophets ;  let 
them  hear  them."  That  is,  the  broth- 
ers and  all  their  neighbors  have  plenty 
of  churches,  and  in  them  the  will  of  God 
is  continually  declared ;  that  is  enough. 
But  the  rich  man  is  not  satisfied. 
"Nay,  Father  Abraham,"  he  cries, 
"but  if  one  went  to  them  from  the 
dead,  they  will  repent."  But  Abraham 
replies,  "If  they  hear  not  Moses  and 
the  prophets,  neither  will  they  repent, 
though  one  went  unto  them  from  the 
dead.".  The  miraculous,  as  evidential 
and  persuasive  in  religion,  is  here  dis- 
missed. It  is  set  aside  as  ineffective. 
That  which  really  counts  for  the  con- 
version of  the  soul  of  man  is  the  word 
of  God,  the  will  of  God,  the  presence  of 

F  65 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

God,  in  common  life.  This  is  why  the 
Lord  refused  to  force  the  faith  of  the 
people  by  a  supernatural  appearance. 
He  had  no  confidence  in  either  the  faith 
or  the  repentance  which  was  induced 
by  that  sort  of  testimony. 

By  and  by,  we  find  Him  transfigured 
on  the  mountain,  in  the  presence  of 
three  disciples.  But  the  place  to  be 
transfigured  is  not  a  mountain,  but  a 
market.  Let  Him  come  out  into  the 
crowded  city,  and  in  the  presence  of  a 
multitude  beholding  and  adoring,  let 
His  face  and  His  vesture  shine  like  the 
sun.  No,  the  transfiguration  is  not 
for  purposes  of  evidence.  The  Lord 
prays,  entering  into  the  cloud  which  is 
a  symbol  of  the  divine  presence,  and 
as  He  prays  His  face  is  illumined,  and 
the  light  of  heaven  shines  upon  Him. 
It  is  an  intimate  and  sacred  experience. 
The  three  are  brought  for  a  moment 
into  a  realization  of  the  spiritual  life 
of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  as  remote  from 
the  purposes  of  evidence  and  argument 
as  prayer  is  remote  from  the  purposes 
of  syntax  and  rhetoric. 

Presently,  He  rises  from  the  dead. 
66 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

Now,  if  ever,  is  the  time  for  Him  to 
show  Himself  openly  to  the  world. 
He  did  not,  indeed,  come  down  from 
the  cross  to  meet  the  conditions  of  a 
promised  faith.  "Let  him  come  down 
from  the  cross,"  they  said,  "and  we 
will  believe."  But  here  He  is  alive. 
Here  is  the  occasion  for  the  final 
convincing  of  all  incredulity.  Now 
let  Him  satisfy  the  Sadducees.  Now, 
in  the  face  of  all  men,  let  Him  estab- 
lish the  certainty  of  the  life  eternal. 
No ;  He  appears  "not  to  all  the  people, 
but  unto  witnesses  chosen  before  of 
God."  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
"evidences  of  Christianity,"  this  careful 
selection  of  witnesses  is  a  suspicious 
circumstance.  But  He  is  paying  no 
attention  to  the  evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity. He  is  working  no  miracle  for 
the  greater  confirmation  of  the  faith. 
He  is  alive,  and  they  whose  souls  are 
receptive  see  Him.  It  is  the  same  sort 
of  evidence  which  is  intended  in  the 
saying,  "The  pure  in  heart  shall  see 
God." 

Jesus   Christ   subordinated   the   mi- 
raculous.    He    did  not    deny    it;    He 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

worked  miracles.  But  he  detested  the 
idea  of  being  followed  as  a  miracle 
worker.  He  turned  sharply  to  one 
whom  He  suspected  of  that  kind  of 
discipleship,  saying,  "Except  ye  see 
signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  not  believe." 
He  said  to  Thomas,  "Now  you  have 
seen  a  miracle,  and  you  believe ;  blessed 
are  they  who  have  not  seen  and  yet 
have  believed. " 

This  is  a  blessing  into  which  we  our- 
selves may  enter.  Miracles  have  no 
place  in  our  religious  experience.  God 
has  never  disclosed  Himself  to  us  in  any 
astonishing  manner,  nor  do  we  expect 
that  He  will  do  so.  We  do  not  antici- 
pate any  repetition  of  the  plagues  of 
Egypt,  nor  of  the  falling  of  the  walls  of 
Jericho,  nor  of  a  supply  of  food  from 
heaven.  In  a  true  sense,  all  our  food 
comes  from  heaven,  but  by  processes 
which  are  at  the  same  time  divine  and 
natural.  And  we  are  content  to  have 
it  so.  The  miracles  as  dramatic  mar- 
vels, blazing  in  our  faces,  we  have  never 
seen,  nor  do  we  expect  to  see  them. 
We  read  about  them  in  the  ancient 
pages  of  the  Bible. 
68 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

• 

When,  however,  we  come  to  consider 
the  miracles  of  the  Bible,  we  perceive 
that  they  are  very  few  in  number. 
They  make  so  great  an  impression  that 
they  seem  many,  but  they  belong  for 
the  most  part  to  three  cycles  only,  in 
the  long  course  of  the  history,  and  are 
grouped  about  six  persons.  There  is  a 
cycle  of  miracles  at  the  beginning  of 
the  era  of  the  Law,  performed  by  Moses. 
There  is  a  second  cycle  at  the  beginning 
of  the  era  of  the  Prophets,  performed 
by  Elijah  and  Elisha.  There  is  a  third 
cycle  at  the  beginning  of  the  era  of  the 
Gospel,  performed  by  our  Lord,  and  by 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul. 

Those  three  cycles  may  mean  that  in 
these  initial  periods  God  manifested 
Himself  with  unusual  power  and  plain- 
ness. They  may  be  analogous  to  the 
times  when  the  mountains  were  erected 
on  the  earth,  amidst  the  rushing  of 
fire  and  flood  and  the  grinding  of  ice; 
as  our  own  days  are  analogous  to  the 
long,  slow,  silent  processes  whereby 
the  mountains  have  since  been  shaped 
by  the  rain  and  the  frost.  It  is  a  rea- 
sonable belief  that  God  saw  at  certain 

69 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

times  a  need  for  an  uncommonly 
direct  exercise  of  His  will  in  the  aifairs 
of  men. 

Or  the  cycles  may  mean  that  these 
eras  so  touched  the  imagination  of  the 
people  that  the  only  expression  which 
they  felt  to  be  adequate  to  their  sense 
of  wonder  was  in  terms  of  the  miracu- 
lous. This  is  what  appears  in  the  lives 
of  the  saints.  The  devout  biographer 
is  trying  to  bring  into  the  mind  of  a 
new  generation  a  true  idea  of  the  holi- 
ness, the  loving  service,  the  spiritual 
greatness  of  the  saint,  in  order  that  his 
good  life  may  be  abidingly  influential, 
and  that  he  may  affect  others  in  the 
future  as  he  affected  his  loving  and 
revering  disciples  in  the  past.  But 
the  spirit  of  the  man  cannot  easily  be 
brought  into  the  conventional  sentences 
of  accurate  biography.  The  lines  must 
be  deepened,  the  colors  must  be  height- 
ened, so  that  the  canvas  may  be  seen 
at  a  distance.  The  result  is  an  honest 
narrative  of  miracles  that  never  hap- 
pened. The  purpose  of  the  biographer 
is  akin  to  the  intention,  not  of  the 
photographer,  but  of  the  artist.  He 
70 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

desires  to  reveal  the  splendor  of  the 
saint,  and  he  perceives  that  this  may 
best  be  done  by  the  use  of  symbols. 
In  art,  the  symbol  which  marks  the 
saint  is  a  halo  of  celestial  light  about 
his  head.  In  history,  the  correspond- 
ing symbol  is  a  miracle.  Every  ancient 
nation  which  honored  its  founders  and 
champions  expressed  that  honor  in  the 
language  of  the  supernatural.  It  may 
be  this  habit  of  the  old  time  which  has 
thus  magnified  and  glorified  the  genius 
of  Moses  and  Elijah  and  Elisha. 

Whatever  explanation  we  may  give 
to  account  for  this  singular  concen- 
tration of  the  Bible  miracles  at  these 
three  points  of  time,  the  fact  remains 
that  these  miracles  were  few  in  number. 

Not  only,  however,  were  they  few, 
but  a  study  of  them  reveals  the  further 
fact  that  they  were  ineffective  as  aids 
to  faith  and  to  the  progress  of  religion. 

The  miracles  of  the  first  cycle  made 
but  a  passing  impression  upon  either 
the  Egyptians  or  the  Jews.  Again  and 
again,  in  the  face  of  them,  Pharaoh 
refused  to  let  the  people  go.  Even 
at  the  last,  after  the  accumulated  stress 

71 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

of  all  the  plagues,  when  he  did  let  them 
go,  he  immediately  changed  his  mind 
and  followed  them  to  bring  them  back. 
It  was  not  made  clear  to  him  that  he 
was  contradicting  the  will  of-  the  Lord 
of  all  the  earth.  The  ten  miracles 
added  together  did  not  convince  him. 
Neither  did  they  withhold  the  Israelites 
from  criticising  and  reviling  Moses,  re- 
fusing his  advice,  disobeying  his  com- 
mands, and  rebelling  against  his  admin- 
istration. After  all  the  mighty  plagues, 
and  the  crossing  of  the  Red  Sea,  and 
the  thunderings  of  Sinai,  and  twenty 
miracles  besides,  they  were  with  diffi- 
culty restrained  from  stoning  him. 

The  most  dramatic  miracle  of  the 
second  cycle  was  the  calling  down  of 
fire  on  the  sacrifice  at  Carmel.  All  the 
conditions  were  present  which  should 
make  a  miracle  effective.  It  was  an 
accepted  test  of  the  truth  of  one  or 
other  of  two  competing  religions.  Is 
Baal  God,  or  is  Jehovah  God  ?  "The 
God  that  answereth  by  fire,  let  him  be 
God."  Then  out  of  the  cloudless  sky 
flamed  the  fire  of  Jehovah,  and  con- 
sumed the  sacrifice.  But  the  next 
72 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

chapter  in  the  story  is  an  account  of 
the  flight  of  Elijah.  The  prophet  who 
had  called  down  the  divine  fire  to  prove 
the  truth  of  his  religion  had  not  made 
a  single  convert.  He  fled  for  his  life. 
And  he  confessed  to  God  that  so  far  as 
he  knew  he  was  the  only  man  in  the 
whole  land  who  believed  the  creed 
which  had  been  thus  accredited  by 
miracle. 

The  same  condition  attends  the 
miracles  of  the  New  Testament.  No- 
body denied  them,  but  the  fact  that 
they  were  accepted  as  true  miracles  did 
not  make  them  convincing.  For  the 
moment  they  attracted  crowds,  so  that 
the  Pharisees  said,  "Behold,  the  world 
is  gone  after  Him."  But  the  Pharisees 
themselves,  who  made  this  comment  on 
the  raising  of  Lazarus,  were  affected 
by  that  miracle  only  to  consult  how 
they  might  put  to  death  Lazarus  as  well 
as  Jesus.  The  matter  is  made  plain  in 
the  Acts,  where  the  rulers,  meeting  in 
conference  after  the  healing  of  the  lame 
man,  say,  "What  shall  we  do  to  these 
men  ?  for  that  indeed  a  notable  miracle 
hath  beeji  done  by  them  is  manifest 

73 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

to  all  them  that  dwell  in  Jerusalem, 
and  we  cannot  deny  it."  They  can- 
not deny  it.  There  is  the  miracle  as 
plain  as  the  shining  sky.  But  that 
makes  no  difference  whatever.  The 
effect  of  the  miracle,  instead  of  gaining 
their  allegiance,  is  to  make  them  more 
determined  enemies  than  ever.  "That 
it  spread  no  farther  among  the  people, 
let  us  straitly  threaten  them,  that  they 
speak  henceforth  to  no  man  in  this 
name.  And  they  called  them  and 
commanded  them  not  to  speak  at  all 
nor  teach  in  the  name  of  Jesus." 

These  two  facts  regarding  the  Bible 
miracles  —  that  they  are  few  in  num- 
ber, and  that  they  are  ineffective  as 
aids  to  faith  —  illustrate  Christ's 
habitual  depreciation  of  the  miraculous. 
He  never  raised  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  miracles  really  happened, 
but  He  insisted  that  they  are  not  of 
any  great  spiritual  value.  They  do 
not  contain  the  essential  revelation  of 
God. 

The  subordination  of  the  miraculous 
by  the  Supreme  Spiritual  Master,  and 
the  confirmation  of  His  judgment  by 

74 


RELIGION_AND  MIRACLE 

the  evidence  of  Bible  history,  prepare 
us  to  meet  the  minimizing  of  the  mi- 
raculous with  a  serene  mind 

Some  miracles  are  subtracted  from 
the  old  lists  by  a  process  of  natural 
explanation.  It  is  perceived,  for  exam- 
ple, that  healing  without  medicine  is 
in  accordance  with  regular  and  par- 
tially understood  laws  of  human  nature. 
That  Jesus  performed  wonderful  cures 
is  no  longer  doubted,  but  that  the 
cures  were  such  as  to  imply  the  personal 
and  particular  act  of  God  appears  un- 
likely. They  belong,  with  all  healing, 
to  the  application  by  man  of  the  forces 
of  the  world  to  meet  a  special  need. 

Other  miracles  are  subtracted  by  a 
process  of  literary  interpretation.  They 
are  seen  to  derive  their  wonder  not 
so  much  from  the  event  as  from  the 
enthusiastic  words  in  which  the  event 
is  recorded.  They  belong  not  to  prose, 
but  to  poetry,  and  are  to  be  read,  not 
in  the  light  of  science,  but  in  the 
light  of  imagination.  Thus  Joshua 
commands  the  sun  and  moon  to  stand 
still,  and  they  obey  him,  but  the  state- 
ment is  quoted  from  a  book  of  ballads. 

75 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

It  has  no  connection  with  astronomy. 
It  is  a  poet's  way  of  expressing  the 
greatness  of  a  victory  :  the  day  seemed 
to  be  marvellously  prolonged,  so  much 
did  they  accomplish  in  it ;  the  sun  and. 
moon  stood  still  to  watch  the  Israelites 
as  they  chased  the  Canaanites  down 
the  long  pass. 

Jonah  meets  with  a  great  fish.  But 
Christian,  also,  in  the  "Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress," meets  with  strange  animals. 
They  all  belong  together,  not  to  the 
world  of  zoology,  but  to  the  world  of 
parable.  They  are  pictures  which  illus- 
trate a  story.  Our  Puritan  ancestors 
disliked  fiction,  partly  because  it  seemed 
to  them  out  of  keeping  with  so  serious 
a  world,  and  partly  because  the  fiction 
of  the  Elizabethan  age  was  not  what 
they  considered  profitable  or  proper 
reading.  Their  dislike  we  have  vaguely 
inherited.  This  is  why  some  good 
people  are  troubled  at  the  suggestion 
that  there  is  fiction  in  the  Bible.  The 
fact,  however,  remains.  In  the  Bible, 
even  fiction  is  used  for  the  setting  forth 
of  spiritual  truth.  Jesus  so  used  it  in 
the  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  The 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

book  of  Daniel,  the  book  of  Esther,  the 
book  of  Jonah,  are  instances  of  it.  The 
great  fish  swims  about  and  swallows 
Jonah  in  a  story,  not  in  a  history. 

Still  other  wonders  are  taken  from 
the  lists  of  miracles  as  being  the  state- 
ments of  honest  but  mistaken  observa- 
tion. The  Gadarene  swine  run  vio- 
lently down  a  steep  place  and  perish  in 
the  water.  That  was  the  fact.  The 
historian  believed  that  the  panic  of  the 
swine  was  caused  by  the  entrance  into 
them  of  a  thousand  devils.  That  was 
his  interpretation  of  the  fact.  Such 
a  conclusion  was  easy  and  natural  in 
those  days.  A  different  observer,  dif- 
ferently educated,  might  have  had  a 
different  opinion. 

There  was  a  pool  in  Jerusalem,  called 
Bethesda,  whose  water  singularly 
moved.  It  lay  still  for  a  time,  and 
then  suddenly  began  to  bubble ;  and 
this  stirring  of  the  water  was  repeated 
again  and  again,  day  after  day.  A 
sentence  written  into  the  fifth  chapter 
of  St.  John  so  long  after  the  making  of 
that  Gospel  that  the  early  manuscripts 
do  not  contain  it,  says  that  "an  angel 

77 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

went  down  at  a  certain  season  into  the 
pool,  and  troubled  the  water."  That 
was  a  common  explanation.  It  shows 
how  the  plain  man,  looking  on  at  that 
phenomenon,  beheld  a  miracle.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  pool  of  Bethesda 
is  an  intermittent  spring,  and  the 
troubling  of  the  water  is  entirely  due 
to  natural  causes. 

Will  this  process  of  subordination 
and  of  subtraction  result  at  last  in  the 
elimination  of  the  miraculous  ?  Will 
the  miracles  of  the  Bible  take  their 
final  place  with  the  miracles  of  the 
fairy  stories  ?  No  :  for  several  reasons. 

The  miraculous  will  endure  by  reason 
of  the  fact  of  mystery. 

Nobody  knows  enough,  nor  will  any- 
body ever  know  enough,  to  explain 
everything.  Even  in  the  face  of  the 
most  sober  and  most  accurate  reason, 
this  is  a  strange  world  in  which  almost 
anything  may  happen.  The  endeavor 
to  write  all  life  in  plain  prose,  and  to 
bring  all  experience  into  the  ordered 
range  of  common  law,  will  never  suc- 
ceed. The  world  is  too  big,  and  the 
known  part  of  it  is  too  little  for  our 

78 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

legislation.  The  universe  will  never 
be  brought  under  our  cultivation  like 
a  garden  of  useful  vegetables,  fenced 
and  weeded  and  planted  in  straight 
lines.  It  is  more  like  an  endless  forest, 
containing  mountains  and  rivers,  in- 
habited by  uncounted  forms  of  life, 
defying  us  to  bring  it  into  subjection  to 
our  rules.  The  miracles  belong,  with 
the  colors  of  the  clouds  and  the  odors 
of  the  flowers,  to  the  everlasting  poetry 
of  the  world. 

The  miraculous  will  endure  by  reason 
of  the  facts  of  history. 

There  has  been  an  experience  of  mira- 
cle. It  has  not  come  into  the  lives  of 
many  people,  but  it  has  entered  with 
conviction  and  splendor  into  the  lives 
of  some  people,  and  they  have  done 
great  things  in  consequence  of  it. 
The  evident  course  of  history  has 
been  turned  this  way  and  that  a  hun- 
dred times  by  miracle.  Something 
has  happened  for  which  nobody  has 
ever  found  an  adequate  explanation  in 
the  usual  course  of  nature.  God  has 
exercised  His  special  will  in  the  affairs 
of  men. 

79 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

The  miracles  which  have  affected 
history  do  not  satisfy,  indeed,  the  old 
idea  of  a  miracle  as  an  interference 
with  the  laws  of  the  life  of  the  world. 
They  are  rather  to  be  defined  as  a 
divine  use  of  the  material  forces  of  the 
world.  Thus  the  Red  Sea  does  not 
suddenly  part  without  a  reason ;  it 
is  blown  back  by  a  strong  east  wind. 
The  Jordan  does  not  run  dry  without 
a  visible  cause ;  it  is  dammed  by  falling 
banks,  so  that  it  stands  "on  a  heap." 
Such  events  have  happened  at  other 
times.  The  disclosure  of  God  in  them 
is  the  blowing  of  the  wind  and  the  fall- 
ing of  the  bank  just  at  the  right 
moment.  A  miracle  is  not  an  interrup- 
tion, but  a  direction,  of  the  processes 
of  the  universe. 

The  miraculous  will  endure  by  reason 
of  a  fact  in  psychology  :  the  fact  of  the 
reality  of  the  will. 

If  there  is  a  will  in  man,  there  is  a 
will  in  God ;  else  He  is  less  than  we 
are.  And  if  God  has  a  will,  the  miracu- 
lous, even  in  its  most  dramatic  forms, 
is  forever  both  possible  and  reasonable. 
We  work  miracles  ourselves ;  that  is, 
80 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

we  bring  our  will  to  bear  as  a  determin- 
ing factor  upon  the  constant  sequence 
of  cause  and  effect.  We  perceive  in  our 
own  experience  that  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  spiritual  cause.  The  ball 
is  falling,  but  we  stop  it ;  the  garden  is 
withering,  but  we  water  it ;  the  patient 
is  failing  day  by  day,  but  we  introduce 
a  new  remedy ;  things  are  going  to  the 
bad,  but  we  intervene  and  reenforce 
the  good.  The  miracle  is  just  this,  in 
the  realm  of  the  divine.  God  can  work 
miracles,  because  we  can.  It  is  highly 
probable  that  if  He  cares  as  much  about 
people  as  we  do,  He  will  work  miracles 
upon  due  occasion;  though  it  is  probable 
that,  in  His  infinite  and  foreseeing 
wisdom,  such  occasions  will  be  very 
few.  A  denial  of  the  miraculous  is 
an  affirmation  of  the  impotence  of 
God.  It  maintains  that  we  live  in  a 
closed  universe.  It  substitutes  an  un- 
regarding  law  for  a  paternal  person- 
ality. It  contradicts  the  free  will  of 
God.  God  must  work  miracles  in 
order  to  assure  us  of  His  presence  and 
His  care. 

The  progress  of  our  knowledge  will 

81 


RELIGION  AND   MIRACLE 

not  eliminate  the  miraculous,  but  it  will 
enlarge  our  perception  of  it.  It  will 
transfer  our  interest  from  the  infrequent 
disclosure  of  God  in  the  marvellous 
and  the  dramatic  to  the  constant  dis- 
closure of  God  in  the  ordinary  course 
of  daily  life. 

Our  interest  in  the  infrequent  dis- 
closure of  God  is  due,  in  part,  to  our 
natural  delight  in  the  wonderful.  The 
meadow  is  full  of  bushes,  but  Moses 
turns  aside  to  examine  the  strange  bush 
which  burns.  That  is  human  nature. 
But  a  part  of  our  interest  is  due  also  to 
a  common  theory  of  the  remoteness  of 
God.  It  has  been  believed  by  many 
that  God,  having  made  the  world,  went 
back  to  heaven,  and  thereafter  paid  no 
particular  attention  to  our  affairs  except 
to  intervene  sometimes  by  miracle. 
Under  the  stress  of  this  belief,  the  mir- 
acle was  not  only  a  disclosure  of  God, 
but  the  only  real  disclosure  that  we 
have.  The  miraculous  was  our  only 
evidence  of  the  being,  the  will,  and 
the  nature  of  God.  Every  miracle, 
then,  which  was  explained,  and  thus 
by  explanation  taken  over  into  the 
82 


RELIGION  AND   MIRACLE 

natural  order,  weakened  by  just  so 
much  our  faith  in  the  spiritual  world. 

But  we  do  not  now  believe  in  the 
remoteness  of  God.  We  do  not  believe 
in  an  absent  God,  Who  manifests  Him- 
self only  in  the  tremendous  crises  of 
life.  Our  faith  is  in  the  God  of  whom 
St.  Paul  said  "in  Him  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being."  We  per- 
ceive an  ever  present,  an  all-pervading, 
an  unending  disclosure  of  God  in  all 
the  world,  in  all  our  life.  God  is  in  the 
universe  as  the  sun  is  in  the  world,  as 
the  soul  is  in  the  body,  —  the  condition 
of  all  existence,  the  inspiration  of  all 
being,  the  motive  of  all  progress,  the 
mind  of  all  thought,  the  conscience  of 
all  duty,  the  heart  of  all  love.  He  is 
revealed  not  only  in  the  past,  but  in  the 
present,  not  only  to  the  fathers,  but  to 
us,  and  not  only  in  the  infrequent 
wonders  of  the  world,  but  in  those 
constant  wonders  of  nature  and  experi- 
ence which  are  seen  by  those  who  have 
the  eyes  to  see  them. 

Indeed,  it  is  in  the  miracle  of  the 
commonplace,  not  in  the  miracle  of 
the  crisis,  that  God  is  most  evidently 

83 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

manifested.  This  is  his  accustomed 
disclosure.  "The  undivineness  of  the 
natural,  and  the  unnaturalness  of  the 
divine,"  has  well  been  called  "the  great 
heresy  of  popular  thought  respecting 
religion."  One  comes  and  says,  "I 
have  had  a  great  manifestation  of  the 
providence  of  God :  everybody  in  the 
car  was  killed  but  me."  But  another 
says,  "I  have  had  a  greater  revelation 
of  the  providence  of  God  than  that : 
we  went  a  thousand  miles,  and  all 
arrived  in  perfect  safety." 

The  heart  of  the  whole  matter  is  the 
reality  of  a  direct  and  personal  relation 
between  God  and  man.  We  want  to 
be  sure  that  God  is  interested  in  us, 
and  concerned  about  us.  We  want  to 
be  sure  that  God  cares.  This  assur- 
ance is  based,  not  on  the  uncertain 
foundation  of  distant  miracles  which 
cannot  be  verified,  but  on  the  broad 
and  solid  ground  of  the  constant  min- 
istry of  God  to  man  in  the  order  of  the 
world.  This  is  the  plain  and  unde- 
niable and  evidential  miracle :  the 
miracle  of  progress,  whereby  God  guides 
the  race,  as  all  the  histories  show;  the 


RELIGION  AND  MIRACLE 

miracle  of  providence,  whereby  God 
ministers  every  day,  in  His  infinite 
wisdom  and  His  love  which  passes 
understanding,  to  every  one  of  us, 
answering  our  prayers ;  the  miracle  of 
the  fatherhood  of  God. 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF 
GOD 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF 
GOD 

|HE  elements  of  revelation  and 
of  miracle  in  religion  meet  in 
a  supreme  disclosure. 
God  has  made  Himself  evi- 
dent to  us  in  the  world  of  nature.  The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  changing  seasons,  the  sun  and  rain, 
the  seed-time  and  harvest,  manifest  the 
providence  of  God.  But  this  is  not 
an  adequate  disclosure  of  the  divine. 
The  great  place  of  the  miraculous  in  all 
religions  testifies  to  the  strong  desire  of 
man  for  clearer  evidence.  The  order 
of  the  world  is  so  impersonal,  the  years 
go  on  about  their  business  with  so  little 
regard  for  our  concerns,  the  just  and 
the  unjust  are  treated  so  alike,  that  the 
whole  universe  seems  a  vast  machine, 
which  may  indeed  bear  witness  to  some 
mighty  force,  but  which  gives  us  no 
assurance  of  individual  interest. 

89 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

What  we  want  is  a  swift  and  certain 
interposition  in  our  affairs,  which  shall 
settle  all  our  doubts  without  a  per- 
adventure.  We  want  to  see  the  light- 
ning flash.  The  stars  are  symbols  of 
wonder,  and  we  look  up  at  them  as 
they  shine  out  of  the  environing  mys- 
tery of  space ;  but  they  stay  in  their 
courses  so  serenely  and  everlastingly 
that  they  do  not  give  us  any  satisfac- 
tion. They  make  no  response.  If  the 
sun  should  be  turned  into  darkness,  and 
the  moon  into  blood,  if  the  stars 
should  fall,  then  we  might  realize  the 
relation  between  earth  and  heaven. 

After  all  is  said  about  the  manifes- 
tation of  God  in  common  life,  and  the 
subordination  of  the  old  belief  in  mira- 
cle to  the  new  belief  in  the  divineness 
of  the  commonplace,  we  are  not  con- 
tented. There  is  a  common  feeling, 
which  may  be  illogical  but  is  certainly 
natural,  that  a  world  without  a  miracle 
is  a  world  without  convincing  evidence 
of  the  personality  of  God.  And  that 
means  that  the  disclosure  of  God  in 
nature  is  not  enough. 

God  has  spoken  unto  us  also  in  the 
90 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF_  GOD 

world  of  humanity.  The  course  of 
history  declares  the  glory  of  God. 
Taking  the  life  of  man  thus  in  the  large, 
we  see  —  as  we  can  rarely  see  in  our 
own  experience  or  observation  —  that 
there  is  a  guiding  hand.  On  comes 
the  race  along  the  highway  of  the 
nations,  led  by  providential  powers, 
slowly  learning  the  essential  lessons, 
taught  by  pains  which  at  the  moment 
seemed  sheer  tragedy  and  cruelty,  but 
which  time  interprets  as  the  dealings 
of  an  infinite  wisdom  and  affection. 
But  this  again,  like  the  revelation  of 
God  in  nature,  fails  to  satisfy  our  long- 
ing for  the  assurance  of  a  direct  rela- 
tion between  God  and  our  own  life. 
It  bears  witness  to  a  mighty  God  Who 
does  indeed  care  for  the  race,  but 
Who,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  is  too  great 
to  care  for  the  individual.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  there  seems  to  be  a  clear  indi- 
cation in  our  own  experience  which 
enables  us  to  look  out  into  the  invisible 
and  pray,  "Our  Father."  But  often 
such  evidence  is  transitory  and  uncer- 
tain. Even  in  the  large,  the  nature  of 
God  as  He  is  revealed  in  humanity  is 

91 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

hard  to  read.  Is  God  law,  or  is  He 
love?  O-fio, 

Then,  in  the  midst  of  the  theological 
uncertainties  and  perplexities  presented 
by  nature  and  by  humanity,  come 
the  voices  of  the  prophets.  The  com- 
mon experience  of  common  people  is 
interpreted  by  the  uncommon  experi- 
ence of  these  uncommon  people.  As 
the  mysteries  of  nature  are  lightened 
here  and  there  by  discovery,  and  the 
mysteries  of  humanity  are  lightened 
here  and  there  by  genius,  so  that  we 
understand  the  world  better  and  our- 
selves better,  so  God  speaks  to  us  with 
a  new  plainness  by  the  prophets. 
These  uncommon  persons,  delicately 
sensitive  to  spiritual  impressions,  see 
what  we  cannot  see,  and  hear  what  we 
cannot  hear.  Where  we  doubt  or 
guess,  they  perceive  God. 

But  this  perception  of  God  is  con- 
ditioned and  limited  by  the  minds  and 
souls  of  the  prophets.  It  is  affected 
by  their  prejudices  and  ignorances. 
It  is  dulled  by  their  sins.  We  acknowl- 
edge that  they  know  more  about  God 
than  we  do,  but  we  cannot  help  seeing 
92 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

that  they  are  liable  to  error.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  have  erred,  and 
must  err.  We  desire,  therefore,  a  per- 
fect prophet,  to  whom,  and  in  whom, 
the  disclosure  of  the  divine  may  be 
made  in  all  possible  fulness.  Such  a 
prophet  must  carry  our  human  nature 
to  its  loftiest  height.  He  must  be 
our  ideal  of  what  man  ought  to  be ;  and 
this  ideal  must  be  in  terms  of  character. 
He  need  not  be  the  mightiest  of  men, 
nor  even  the  wisest  of  men ;  these 
qualities  have  been  found  to  be  con- 
sistent with  baseness.  He  must  be 
the  best  of  men.  Then  shall  he  be 
able  to  look  with  clear  sight  into  the 
invisible,  and  to  hear  the  voice  of 
God.  And  in  the  presence  of  his  per- 
fection we  shall  say,  "Here  is  one 
who  can  tell  us  of  God  with  a  certainty 
which  passes  all  our  possibilities,  and 
to  whom  we  can  go  with  humility  and 
confidence  for  the  supreme  divine  dis- 
closure." In  our  search  for  the  truth 
about  God,  in  our  endeavor  to  know 
the  nature  of  God  and  the  relation  of 
God  to  our  soul,  our  reasonable  trust 
is  in  the  perfect  prophet. 

93 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

Not  only  is  it  true  that  such  a  prophet 
will  know  more  of  the  divine  than  we 
may  ever  hope  to  know,  but  it  is  true 
that  in  such  a  prophet  God  will  be 
able  to  make  an  adequate  revelation  of 
Himself.  Not  in  nature,  not  in  hu- 
manity, not  even  in  the  words  of 
many  prophets,  shall  God  speak  to  us 
adequately,  but  in  the  teaching  and 
still  more  in  the  life  of  the  perfect 
prophet,  who  is  both  the  symbol  and 
the  manifestation  of  the  divine.  Here, 
'plainly,  is  the  supreme  disclosure  of 
God.  This  perfect  prophet,  in  whom 
is  made  this  supreme  disclosure,  is 
Jesus  Christ. 

This  statement  is  expressed  in  the 
careful  language  of  theology  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  Incarnation. 

A  good  deal  of  confusion  is  cleared 
away  from  this  doctrine  by  a  consider- 
ation of  the  two-sidedness  of  truth. 
Truth  has  two  sides,  a  nearer  and  a 
farther.  Thus  in  the  physical  world, 
the  nearer  side  of  truth  is  what  we 
call  practical,  and  the  farther  side  is 
what  we  call  scientific  or  technical. 
We  have  a  practical  acquaintance  with 

94 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

many  things  concerning  which  we 
are  ignorant  technically.  We  know 
enough  about  the  law  of  gravitation  to 
use  it  in  our  business,  and  we  know 
enough  about  electricity  to  turn  on  the 
current  which  lights  the  lamps.  But 
a  scientific  exposition  of  either  of  these 
matters  not  only  exceeds  the  knowledge 
of  the  layman,  but  serves  only  to  per- 
plex him.  The  same  distinction  holds 
between  religion  and  theology.  Reli- 
gion is  the  practical  side  of  theology ; 
theology  is  the  scientific  or  technical 
side  of  religion.  One  is  plain  enough 
to  the  simplest  mind ;  the  other  is 
plain  only  to  those  who  are  expert  in 
metaphysics,  —  and  it  is  not  very  plain 
even  to  them. 

For  in  addition  to  this  difference  be- 
tween the  two  sides  of  truth,  whereby 
one  side  is  practical  and  the  other  is 
technical,  there  is  a  further  difference. 
The  nearer  side  is  that  aspect  of  truth 
which  we  are  able  to  understand,  and 
which  we  can  define  in  clear  sentences ; 
the  farther  side  is  that  aspect  of  truth 
which  reaches  away  into  the  infinite, 
beyond  our  understanding.  These  two 

95 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

sides  are  in  all  truth,  even  in  the 
material  world ;  the  distinction  is  ob- 
vious in  the  world  of  the  spirit.  What 
we  actually  need,  in  faith  as  in  knowl- 
edge, is  a  definite  hold  upon  the 
nearer,  practical  side  of  truth  ;  together 
with  a  clear  perception  that  beyond  this 
lie  illimitable  ranges  of  truth  which 
exceed  our  common  understanding. 

The  nearer  side  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  is  a  recognition  in  Jesus 
Christ  of  the  realization  of  two  ever- 
lasting desires.  One  of  these  is  the 
desire  of  man  to  know  God,  and  to 
know  him  in  some  such  way  as  we  know 
our  neighbors.  The  request  of  the 
apostles,  "  Lord,  show  us  the  Father, 
and  it  sufficeth  us,"  expresses  it.  This 
craving  for  God  in  the  concrete,  which 
is  characteristic  of  man  in  all  ages,  is 
strengthened  at  this  moment  by  the 
giving  up  of  the  old  thought  of  God  as 
sitting  remote  upon  a  throne,  and  the 
taking  on  of  the  thought  of  God  as 
pervading  all  our  life.  This  present 
conception  of  God  is  no  doubt  truer 
than  the  old,  but  it  greatly  increases 
the  difficulty  of  setting  the  personality 

96 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

of  God  before  our  minds.  We  reach 
out  through  all  this  divine  environ- 
ment, which  likens  God  to  the  air  and 
the  light,  for  God  Himself. 

The  other  everlasting  desire  is  that 
which  we  believe  to  be  in  God :  the 
desire  to  reveal  Himself,  to  meet  with 
the  touch  of  His  hand  our  groping 
hands.  This  desire  we  believe  to  be  in 
God,  because  it  is  in  us.  If  He  cares 
for  us,  as  the  prophets  say,  He  must 
wish  to  make  His  nature  and  His  will 
known  to  us ;  He  must  somehow 
satisfy  this  human  craving  for  Himself 
in  our  image.  And  it  is  plain  that  this 
can  best  be  done,  not  by  a  book,  nor 
by  a  voice,  but  in  the  universal  human 
language,  the  language  of  life.  God 
must  somehow  enter  into  man ;  He 
must  in  some  way  act  and  speak,  and 
be  accessible  to  us  as  man.  " 

These  two  desires  meet  in  Jesus 
Christ,  of  whom  the  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  declares  that  He  is  at  the 
same  time  God  and  man. 

And  here  our  present  thought  of  God 
as  infinitely  near  rather  than  infinitely 
distant  assists  our  imagination.  For- 
H  97 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

merly,  when  God  was  believed  to  be 
sitting  on  a  throne  in  heaven,  we  had 
to  think  of  him  as  "coming  down." 
Somehow,  He  came  down  and  united 
Himself  with  human  nature,  and  resided 
for  a  time  upon  this  planet.  That 
was  very  hard  to  think.  To-day,  the 
interpretative  phrase,  instead  of  "  com- 
ing down,"  is  "shining  through." 

God  is  in  all  the  universal  life,  as  the 
sun  is  in  the  world.  At  sundry  times 
and  in  divers  manners,  He  discloses 
Himself.  He  shines  through  nature, 
as  the  sun  shines  through  a  clouded 
glass,  dimly.  He  shines  through  hu- 
manity, especially  in  the  lives  of  good 
people,  as  the  sun  shines  where  the  glass 
is  clearer;  still  dimly,  but  more  dis- 
tinctly, we  see  God  in  them.  But 
here  is  a  clear  place  in  the  glass  where 
the  sun  shines  straight  through.  We 
look,  and  behold  the  sun  !  Not  the 
sun  in  the  perfection  of  his  strength, 
because  our  eyes  are  not  strong  enough 
to  see  that ;  even  the  best  telescopes 
are  insufficient  for  that,  —  but  still, 
the  sun. 

Thus     shines     God    through    Jesus 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

Christ.  He  is  a  man ;  for  we  may 
touch  His  hands  and  hear  His  voice. 
His  humanity  makes  Him  our  example  ; 
in  Whom  we  perceive  the  possibilities 
of  mankind  at  its  best ;  Who  thus  calls 
us  on  to  high  achievement,  and  fills  our 
souls  with  the  inspiration  of  a  splendid 
ideal.  He  is  that  concrete  embodiment 
of  the  divine  for  which  we  long.  And, 
at  the  same  time,  He  is  God ;  in  Him 
we  see  God.  When  we  would  draw 
near  to  God,  we  draw  near  to  Him. 
When  we  would  understand,  as  best 
we  may,  the  nature  and  the  will  of  God, 
we  learn  of  Him. 

It  is  true  that  when  we  endeavor 
to  distinguish  between  the  human  and 
the  divine  in  Him,  we  fall  easily  into 
confusion.  Are  they  indeed  distin- 
guishable ?  Is  the  divine  spirit  foreign 
to  the  human  spirit  ?  Is  God,  who 
made  us  in  His  own  image,  quite  apart 
from  us  whom  He  has  made  ?  The 
moral  qualities,  which  constitute  the 
best  of  our  humanity,  must  be  the  same 
in  Him  and  in  us ;  truth  the  same, 
righteousness  the  same,  love  the  same. 
The  human  and  the  divine  meet  in 

99 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

Christ  as  the  physical  and  the  spiritual 
meet  in  every  act  and  thought  of  man. 
Together  they  enter  into  the  nature 
and  the  life  of  the  one  Christ.  As  we 
cannot  discern  which  part  is  oxygen 
and  which  is  hydrogen  in  the  water 
which  we  drink,  so  we  receive  that 
living  water  to  which  He  likened  Him- 
self, satisfied  to  be  refreshed  by  it, 
without  need  of  analysis. 

It  is  true  that  when  we  endeavor  to 
persuade  our  neighbor  that  not  man  only, 
but  God,  was  in  Christ,  we  find  that 
we  are  put  of  the  region  of  reasoning, 
in  the  region  of  recognition.  We  can- 
1  not  prove  it.  Neither  can  we  prove  the 
splendor  of  the  sky.  There  it  is,  shin- 
ing in  the  eyes  of  all  men.  But  the 
argument  for  it  is  not  in  the  books  of 
the  astronomers,  nor  in  the  calcula- 
tions of  the  observatories.  It  is  its 
own  argument.  So  the  hero  is  his  own 
argument;  the  saint  is  his  own  argu- 
ment. The  greatness  of  these  men 
cannot  be  demonstrated  to  the  satis- 
faction and  conversion  of  the  indif- 
sjL  ferent.  They  wait,  not  for  reasoning, 
but  for  recognition.  Jesus  Christ,  when 
100 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

He  was  visibly  and  audibly  among 
us,  waited  often  in  vain.  Men  saw 
and  heard  Him,  and  then  went  by  on 
the  other  side  of  the  street.  The 
supreme  man  of  all  time  was  in  their 
town,  but  they  did  not  know  it. 
God  was  manifested  among  them,  but 
they  were  not  aware  that  anything  was 
happening.  Jesus  Christ  is  seen  to  be 
the  Son  of  God,  not  by  comparison  of 
texts,  but  by  looking  into  His  face. 

This  recognition  exists,  I  suppose, 
in  the  souls  of  all  good  people  who 
have  come  to  the  knowledge  of  Jesus. 
They  may  express  themselves  in  other 
words  than  ours.  They  may  be  reluc- 
tant to  recite  our  creeds.  Under  the 
stress  of  controversy  they  may  express 
a  difference  which  is  much  wider  than 
they  truly  feel.  Nevertheless,  Jesus 
is  the  master  of  their  soul,  the  revealer 
of  eternal  truth,  the  Son  of  God,  whom 
they  revere  and  serve  and  love,  in 
whom  they  find  the  disclosure  of  the 
divine.  Dr.  Everett,  in  the  notes  of  his 
lectures  in  the  Harvard  Divinity  School, 
says  :  "The  divine  principle  in  the 
world  manifests  itself  more  and  more 

101 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

till  it  comes  to  the  full  consciousness 
of  itself  in  the  life  and  teaching  of 
Jesus.  .  .  .  His  divinity  is  not  that 
of  one  who  has  come  down  from  above ; 
it  is  that  of  the  life  in  which  the  divine 
element  that  has  been  working  in  the 
world  comes  at  last  to  its  consumma- 
tion, and  reaches  the  point  at  which 
the  doors  open  between  the  lower  and 
the  higher,  so  that  the  divine  life  flows 
freely  downward  and  the  human  life 
upward,  and  the  divine  and  human 
mingle."  This  may  not  satisfy  all 
the  requirements  of  theNicene  theology, 
but  it  touches  the  heart  of  the  truth. 

The  essential  conviction  is  that  God, 
Who  spoke  in  times  past  to  the  fathers 
by  the  prophets,  has  spoken  to  us  by 
his  Son.  "In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,"  says  the  Fourth  Gospel,  "and 
the  Word  was  God."  Yes,  we  lift  up 
our  eyes  to  these  high  truths,  which 
loom  above  the  level  of  our  sight.  St. 
Paul  puts  it  in  an  easier  way.  "God 
was  in  Christ,"  he  says.  That  is  the 
nearer  side.  God  was  in  Christ. 
There  are  perplexities  in  plenty,  and 
questions  which  we  cannot  answer. 
102 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

The  divinity  of  Christ,  like  every  other 
assertion  which  contains  a  divine  factor, 
is  beyond  complete  definition.  If  we 
could  completely  define  and  under- 
stand it,  that  would  mean  that  the 
divine  factor  had  been  left  out.  But 
this  is  enough  for  our  common  reason 
and  our  common  faith ;  enough  for^ 
practical  religion.  God  was  in  Christ. 
Here  is  our  assurance  in  the  midst  of 
all  confusion  ;  the  words  which  He  spoke 
were  not  the  conjectures  of  philosophy, 
but  the  certain  words  of  life  eternal. 
Here  is  our  courage,  our  faith,  our 
consolation,  our  strength,  in  the  midst 
of  difficulty :  we  know  beyond  all 
hesitation  that  God  cares  for  us.  God 
in  Christ  has  made  the  supreme  dis- 
closure of  Himself. 

This  new  divine  disclosure  in  the 
person  and  word  of  Jesus  Christ  made 
necessary  a  new  definition  of  God. 

There  were  at  that  time  two  defi- 
nitions of  the  being  of  God.  In  most 
religions  God  was  defined  in  terms  of 
polytheism.  There  were  many  gods. 
The  natural  association  of  the  idea  of 
personality  with  the  fact  of  motion  led 

103 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

to  the  theory  of  an  immediate  divine 
cause  for  every  phenomenon  of  life. 
There  was  a  god  of  the  sky  and  of  the 
sea,  a  god  of  the  wind  and  of  the  rain, 
and  gods  were  resident  in  whispering 
trees  and  singing  springs.  Behind 
these  many  gods,  the  wisest  men  found 
God.  They  had  a  dim  perception  of 
one  eternal  and  universal  source  of 
life  and  power. 

.  This  definition  of  God  in  terms  of 
monotheism  was  made  a  popular  belief 
in  Judaism.  It  began,  indeed,  in  the 
idea  of  one  god  for  the  land  and  for 
the  nation,  and  it  was  only  after  a  long 
time  and  with  great  difficulty  that  this 
tribal  monotheism  rose  to  the  concep- 
tion of  one  god  over  all  the  earth.  In 
spite  of  the  teachings  of  the  prophets, 
even  the  Jewish  creed  for  centuries 
was  popularly  expressed  in  the  sentence 
of  a  psalm,  which  reads,  "Among  the 
gods  there  is  none  like  unto  Thee." 
The  people  believed  that  every  nation 
had  its  god.  The  Jewish  god  was  the 
Lord,  Jehovah.  Gradually,  by  the 
lessons  of  great  tribulation,  the  Jew- 
ish people  came  to  that  faith  in  one 
104 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

supreme  God  which  makes  the  Old 
Testament  at  its  height  preeminent 
over  all  the  ancient  theologies.  When 
Christ  came,  they  all  believed  in  one 
only  God. 

The  first  theological  difficulty  which 
the  Christian  religion  had  to  meet  was 
presented  by  the  idea  of  the  divinity 
of  Christ.  The  Christians  had  to  ex- 
plain Him  to  themselves  and  to  their 
neighbors.  An  obvious  and  easy  ex- 
planation was  in  terms  of  polytheism. 
Christ  was  an  inferior  god.  Behind 
all  life,  the  maker  and  maintainer  of 
the  universe,  was  the  supreme  God,  the 
Father,  and,  coming  to  earth  on  His 
errand,  to  teach  men  the  truth  about 
Him,  to  get  His  will  done  on  earth  as  it 
is  done  in  heaven,  was  His  Son. 

This  was  the  interpretation  of  Christ 
which  was  offered  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  century  by  Arius.  He  held 
the  divinity  of  Christ,  but  taught  that 
it  was  a  secondary  and  subordinate 
divinity.  Thus  the  Christian  religion, 
according  to  his  doctrine,  had  two 
gods.  It  was  the  fear  of  polytheism 
which  made  the  contention  against 

105 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

Arianism  so  bitter.  The  Christians  had 
their  dwelling  in  a  polytheistic  world ; 
all  their  neighbors,  except  the  Jews, 
were  of  that  way  of  thinking.  And 
the  Christians  knew  by  observation  and 
experience  that  polytheism  was  unsatis- 
factory both  in  theology  and  in  morals. 
They  were  determined  —  the  clear- 
sighted among  them  —  not  to  go  back 
to  it. 

But  how  could  the  divinity  of  Christ 
be  reconciled,  then,  with  monotheism  ? 
This  was  accomplished  by  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity. 

This  doctrine  begins  with  the  state- 
ment of  the  unity  of  God,  but  it  defines 
that  unity  not  in  terms  of  simplicity, 
but  in  terms  of  complexity.  The  natu- 
ral symbol  of  simplicity  is  the  number 
One.  The  natural  symbol  of  com- 
plexity is  the  number  Three,  which  is 
suggested  to  the  mind  by  the  begin- 
ning, the  middle,  and  the  end.  Cer- 
tain words  of  the  Gospels,  confirmed 
by  the  phenomena  of  the  spiritual  life, 
brought  into  Christian  consciousness 
the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Thus. 
in  Christian  theology,  the  one  God 
106 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

came  to  be  known  under  three  names, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

To  the  theologian,  the  three  names 
represented  three  eternal  distinctions 
in  the  divine  nature.  To  the  layman 
they  represented  three  manifestations 
of  God.  The  one  God  is  given  one  or 
other  of  three  names  according  as  He 
deals  with  us  in  one  or  other  of  three 
ways.  An  excellent  statement  of  this 
popular  definition  is  that  of  the  Church 
Catechism,  where  the  child  is  taught 
to  say,  as  a  summary  of  the  creed : 
"First,  I  learn  to  believe  in  God  the 
Father,  Who  hath  made  me  and  all  the 
world ;  secondly,  in  God  the  Son,  Who 
hath  redeemed  me,  and  all  mankind ; 
thirdly,  in  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  Who 
sanctifieth  me,  and  all  the  people  of 
God." 

Thus  when  God  is  thought  of  as  the 
creator  of  the  world  and  man,  the  lord 
of  the  universe,  the  maintainer  of  the 
suns  and  stars,  we  are  thinking  of  Him 
as  the  Father.  When  God  is  thought 
of  as  making  known  to  man  His  will 
and  His  love  in  the  revealing  person- 

107 


THE  SUPREME  DISCLOSURE  OF  GOD 

ality  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  are  thinking 
of  Him  as  the  Son.  When  God  is 
thought  of  as  speaking  in  the  souls  of 
all  men,  the  world  over,  in  the  voice  of 
inspiration  which  leads  to  all  manner 
of  progress,  and  in  the  voice  of  con- 
science which  leads  to  all  manner  of 
righteousness,  we  are  thinking  of  Him 
as  the  Spirit.  There  is  one  only  God, 
in  the  world  about  us,  in  the  world 
within  us,  and  in  Jesus  Christ,  Who 
interprets  both. 


108 


THE   SUPREME  REQUIREMENT 
OF  RELIGION 


THE    SUPREME   REQUIREMENT 
OF  RELIGION 

1HE  same  sentence  in  which 
St.  Paul  states  the  supreme 
disclosure  of  God  contains 
also  a  statement  of  the  essen- 
tial purpose  of  that  disclosure.  "God 
was  in  Christ,"  he  says,  "  reconciling 
the  world  unto  Himself." 

The  fundamental  facts  of  religion, 
the  being  of  God  and  the  soul  of  man, 
meet  in  Jesus  Christ,  Who  is  the  highest 
revelation  and  the  greatest  miracle. 
But  the  effect  which  is  intended  by  His 
life  and  death  is  the  reconciliation  of 
man  to  God.  This  reconciliation  has 
often  been  expressed  in  terms  of  a 
salvation  in  the  future  from  the  pain 
of  punishment,  but  it  is  constantly 
expressed  in  the  New  Testament  in 
terms  of  a  salvation  in  the  present  from 
the  habit  of  sin ;  that  is,  the  supreme 
requirement  of  religion  is  character. 

in 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

The  disclosure  of  God  in  Christ 
may  be  considered  from  the  point  of 
view  of  theology,  or  from  the  point  of 
view  of  religion.  The  difference  be- 
tween theology  and  religion  is  like  the 
difference  between  psychology  and  phi- 
lanthropy. Psychology  is  a  way  of 
thinking,  a  study  of  human  nature, 
an  analysis  of  the  human  mind.  Phi- 
lanthropy is  a  way  of  living,  a  kindly 
feeling  extending  into  kindly  action 
for  the  benefit  of  society.  So  theology 
is  a  way  of  thinking;  the  word  itself 
expresses  thought  rather  than  action, 
a  discourse  concerning  God.  Theology 
concerns  itself  with  the  greatest  and 
deepest  of  all  themes,  and  the  purpose 
of  it  is  the  knowledge  of  the  truth ; 
while  religion  is  a  way  of  living,  a  carry- 
ing of  the  truth  into  common  life,  an 
assertion  of  faith  by  the  practical  evi- 
dence of  works. 

Neither  of  these  distinctions  —  be- 
tween psychology  and  philanthropy, 
or  between  theology  and  religion  — 
may  be  accurately  drawn.  Neither 
the  psychologist  nor  the  theologian  is 
content  to  be  kept  within  the  fences 

112 


THE   REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

of  philosophy.  They  are  both  con- 
cerned with  life.  The  psychologist 
complains  that  his  experiments  and 
conclusions  are  taken  with  so  little 
seriousness.  "The  laboratories  for  the 
study  of  the  inner  life  flourish,"  he 
says;  "experiments  are  made,  inven- 
tions are  tested,  new  vistas  are  opened, 
but  practical  life  goes  on  without 
making  any  use  of  all  these  psycho- 
logical discoveries.  It  is,  indeed,  as  if 
the  steam  engine  were  confined  to  the 
laboratory  table,  while  in  the  practical 
world  work  were  still  clumsily  done  by 
the  arms  of  slaves."  The  theologian 
is  protesting  with  the  same  vigor 
against  being  relegated  to  those  regions 
which  busy  people  with  some  contempt 
call  "academic."  His  studies  are  for 
our  use.  Their  right  result  is  better 
religion. 

In  the  New  Testament,  theology  is 
always  thus  connected  with  ethics. 
The  purpose  of  the  discussion  of  it  is 
to  provide  a  solid  foundation  of  con- 
viction or  encouragement  on  which  to 
build  a  house  of  life.  The  epistles  of 
St.  Paul  begin  with  considerations  of 
I  113 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF   RELIGION 

faith,  but  they  end  with  considerations 
of  works.  The  statement,  "The  grace 
of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath 
appeared  to  all  men,"  belongs  indeed 
to  history,  but  still  more  to  theology. 
It  has  to  do  with  that  Supreme  disclos- 
ure of  God  which  we  have  been  discuss- 
ing. But  the  sentence  goes  straight 
on  to  a  practical  application  :  "teach- 
ing us  that  denying  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly, 
righteously,  and  godly  in  this  present 
world."  It  proceeds  from  the  supreme 
disclosure  to  the  supreme  requirement. 
An  ancient  and  common  opinion,  in 
the  apostolic  age,  and  long  after,  main- 
tained that  the  most  necessary  part  of 
religion  is  ritual.  It  was  taught  by 
the  priests  of  most  religions  that  what 
God  most  desires  is  the  accurate  per- 
formance of  certain  prescribed  cere- 
monies. He  must  be  approached  with 
proper  reverence.  He  must  be  offered 
the  odor  of  incense  and  the  fat  of  sacri- 
fices. So  long  as  the  services  are  duly 
conducted,  with  the  sound  of  music 
and  the  color  of  vestments,  God,  they 
said,  is  satisfied.  It  seems  to  us  a 
114 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

curious  and  even  grotesque  idea  of 
God,  but  of  the  existence  of  it  there 
is  no  doubt.  The  Old  Testament 
prophets  met  it,  and  contended  against 
it,  —  not  always  with  success. 

The  characteristic  names  by  which 
Christians  have  called  themselves  in 
the  East  and  in  the  West  suggest  two 
other  theories  as  to  the  supreme  reli- 
gious requirement.  One  of  these 
names,  which  is  exalted  in  the  East 
and  is  made  a  part  of  the  title  of  the 
Eastern  Church,  is  "  orthodox."  It 
expresses  a  right  relation  to  the  creed. 
It  means  that  a  man  is  to  be  consid- 
ered a  good  Christian  according  to  his 
acceptance  of  a  certain  formulation  of 
Christian  truth.  The  other  name, 
which  is  exalted  in  the  West,  and  is 
made  a  part  of  the  title  of  the  Western 
Church,  is  "catholic."  Thus  refers  to 
order,  as  "orthodox"  refers  to  faith.  It 
is  erected  against  schism,  as  "orthodox" 
is  erected  against  heresy.  It  expresses 
a  right  relation  to  the  church.  It  means 
that  a  man  is  to  be  considered  a  good 
Christian  according  to  his  loyalty  to 
a  certain  organization  of  Christian  life. 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 
• 

These  ideas  as  to  the  supreme  require- 
ment of  religion  are  additions  to  the 
New  Testament  ideal.  The  creed  was 
introduced  into  Christianity  by  the 
Greeks.  It  represents  their  racial  in- 
stinct to  get  truth  into  clear  form. 
Faith,  in  the  New  Testament,  is  for 
the  most  part  emotional  rather  than 
intellectual.  The  faith  which  is  made 
a  condition  of  salvation  is  related  not 
to  a  formula,  but  to  a  person.  It  con- 
sists in  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ.  It. 
is  the  faith  of  a  child  in  his  parents. 
In  the  later  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, we  come  upon  faith  as  "the 
faith."  This  is  the  beginning  of  the 
making  of  a  creed.  But  the  creed  is 
nowhere  exalted  in  primitive  Chris- 
tianity as  it  came  to  be  in  the  East. 

The  church  was  introduced  into 
Christianity  by  the  Romans.  It  was 
their  characteristic  racial  contribution. 
Their  instinct  was  to  get  life  into  order. 
They  had  an  executive,  governmental 
gift.  They  found  the  New  Testament 
Church  so  loosely  organized  that  St. 
Paul  gives  two  or  three  quite  different 
lists  of  the  names  and  duties  of  its 
116 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

officers.  There  was  a  church,  in  the 
sense  of  a  fraternal  organization,  from 
the  beginning;  but  the  emphasis  of 
interest  was  not  upon  it.  That  was  a 
Roman  emphasis,  the  gift  of  a  people 
who,  like  the  Greeks,  brought  their 
best  and  offered  it  to  God. 

The  supreme  requirement  of  religion 
is  not  the  performance  of  a  ritual, 
nor  the  recitation  of  a  creed,  nor 
allegiance  to  a  church.  It  is  the  living 
of  a  good  life.  The  supreme  requisite 
is  character. 

This  religious  ideal  the  Christians 
inherited  from  the  Jews.  It  was  strik- 
ingly symbolized  in  the  construction 
of  the  Jewish  temple. 

The  temple  was  so  planned  as  to 
lead  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  wor- 
shipper along  an  ascending  series  of 
holy  places.  He  entered  first  into  a 
great  enclosure,  like  the  yard  of  a 
church,  whose  name  —  the  Court  of 
the  Gentiles  —  indicated  that  there  the 
sacred  and  the  secular  were  inter- 
mingled. The  world  was  indeed  shut 
out,  but  only  in  part ;  the  doors  were 
open  for  all  sorts  of  people.  In  this 

117 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

enclosure  stood  the  temple  itself,  and 
at  the  Beautiful  Gate  which  gave 
access  to  it,  a  process  of  sifting  and 
selection  began.  Only  the  faithful  had 
the  privilege  of  entrance.  Thus  they 
came  into  the  Court  of  the  Women. 
Here  the  women  stayed,  while  the  men 
went  on  up  a  high  range  of  steps  to  the 
Court  of  the  Priests.  And  there  the 
laymen  stayed,  while  the  priests  went 
on  into  the  Holy  Place.  And  the 
priests  themselves  remained  in  the 
Holy  Place,  by  the  altar  of  incense, 
while  the  High  Priest  entered,  on 
certain  days,  into  the  Holy  of  Holies. 
He  lifted  the  veil  which  hung  before 
the  door,  and  went  in  to  make  his 
prayers  for  himself  and  for  his  people 
before  the  supreme  symbol  of  the 
divine  presence.  That  symbol  was  an 
ancient  chest,  the  ark,  stained  and  bat- 
tered in  the  journeys  and  the  wars  of 
the  old  time ;  made,  they  said,  by 
Moses,  when  he  came  down  from 
Sinai.  Nobody  saw  it  but  the  High 
Priest,  and  he  saw  it  only  once  a  year. 
Its  position  at  the  end  of  this  succes- 
sion of  increasing  sanctities,  and  its 
118 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

mysterious  seclusion,  deepened  the  awe 
with  which  it  was  regarded  by  the 
people.  In  the  ark  were  the  tables 
of  stone,  written  over  with  the  Ten 
Commandments. 

Thus  at  the  summit  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment religion,  in  the  most  sacred  place 
in  the  sanctuary  of  the  Old  Testament 
worship,  higher  than  all  the  altars, 
the  sign  and  assurance  of  the  presence 
of  God,  was  the  statement  of  the  moral 
law.  When  you  got  to  the  very  heart 
of  it,  past  all  the  sacrifices,  through  the 
smoke  of  incense,  there  was  that  sym- 
bol of  the  fact  that  the  chief  thing  in 
true  religion  is  character. 

Of  course,  the  creed  is  important, 
and  the  church  is  important. 

The  creed  is  the  best  statement 
which  we  are  able  to  make  concerning 
the  relation  of  the  being  of  God  to  the 
soul  of  man.  The  world  of  nature  is2' 
a  manifestation  of  God  the  Father. 
Jesus  Christ,  the  flower  of  the  world  of 
humanity,  is  a  manifestation  of  God 
the  Son,  living  our  life,  dying  for  our 
sake,  rising  again  to  life  everlasting, 
coming  finally  to  judge  us.  The  prog-  v 

119 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

ress  of  the  world,  and  of  every  indi- 
vidual in  it,  is  the  work  of  God  the 
Holy  Ghost,  whose  voice  is  the  voice 
of  conscience,  and  who  is  the  inspirer 
of  all  good  accomplishment.  This  is 
what  the  creed  says,  bringing  into  its 
brief  space  the  intuitions  of  the  saints, 
and  the  conclusions  of  the  sages. 

But  the  essential  purpose  of  the 
creed  is  practical.  The  orthodox  intel- 
lectual acceptance  of  it  has  no  religious 
value  whatsoever.  Jesus  said,  "The 
devils  believe  and  tremble."  They 
believe,  so  far  as  that  goes,  and  tremble, 
too.  But  it  makes  no  difference ;  it 
has  no  moral  effect.  The  devils  are 
orthodox,  but  they  continue  to  be 
devils  notwithstanding.  An  efficient 
faith  is  practical.  It  carries  the  articles 
of  the  creed  into  daily  effect.  Thus  the 
creed  is  not  only  related  to  life,  but  is 
of  value  in  proportion  as  it  affects  life. 
It  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  pragmatic 
test.  Some  of  its  statements  are  of 
primary  importance,  others  are  of  sec- 
ondary importance,  according  to  their 
working  power.  "I  believe  in  God  the 
Father,"  is  of  primary  importance; 
1 20 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF   RELIGION 

"I  believe  that  Christ  descended  into 
hell,"  is  of  secondary  importance. 
Upon  one  of  these  beliefs  everything 
depends ;  it  is  a  cardinal  truth  of  reli- 
gion. Upon  the  other,  nothing  de- 
pends ;  it  is  but  a  detail,  —  true  enough, 
but  of  little  daily  value.  The  impor- 
tance of  knowing  the  meaning  of  the 
world  as  it  is  set  forth  in  the  creed  is 
that  we  may  live  in  accordance  with 
it.  The  creed  is  for  the  sake  of  char- 
acter. 

The  church  is  the  organization  of  the 
religious  life  as  the  creed  is  the  formu- 
lation of  religious  truth.  It  is  an  asso- 
ciation of  Christians  for  the  sake  of 
service :  for  service  considered  devo- 
tionally,  as  we  enter  into  the  church 
for  the  good  of  our  souls ;  and  for 
service  considered  socially,  as  we  go 
out  of  the  church  to  undertake  the 
good  of  others. 

But  this  double  use  of  the  word 
"service"  discloses  the  true  purpose  of 
the  church.  The  two  aspects  of  reli- 
gion, devotional  and  social,  belong 
together.  Prayer  and  philanthropy  are 
two  sides  of  the  same  good  life.  Wor- 

121 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

ship  and  work  are  dependent  the  one 
upon  the  other,  like  the  steam  and  the 
machine.  They  act  and  react.  The 
sermons  and  sacraments  of  the  church 
are  privileges  which  carry  responsi- 
bilities with  them,  and  enable  men  to 
do  the  things  for  which  they  are 
responsible.  It  is  all  eventually  prac- 
tical, like  the  creed. 

The  true  test  of  a  church  is  not  the 
glory  of  its  buildings,  nor  the  strength 
of  its  organization,  nor  its  wealth  nor 
-.  numbers,  but  its  actual  result  in  char- 
acter. Thus  a  parish  is  tested  by  the 
conduct  of  the  congregation,  and  an 
individual  by  his  ordinary  behavior. 
What  does  our  religion  do  for  us  ? 
What  does  our  church  mean  as  repre- 
sented by  us  among  our  neighbors  ? 
What  are  the  virtues  which  our  loyal 
churchmanship  implies  ?  These  ques- 
tions are  vital,  and  what  they  signify 
is  that  the  church,  like  the  creed,  is  for 
the  sake  of  character.  It  exists  to 
make  men  good. 

Accordingly,  in  Christ's  description 
of  the  Last  Judgment,  there  is  no 
mention  of  either  creed  or  church. 
122 


THE   REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

Men  are  estimated  there  by  what  they 
are  as  the  result  of  all  the  influences  of  ^ 
their  lives.  One  may  say,  "I  kept  the 
faith ;  I  believed  everything  that  was 
set  down  in  the  creeds,  every  least  bit 
of  it,  and  more  beside."  But  the  ,1 
Lord  will  answer  :  "Very  well,  what 
good  did  it  do  you  ?  How  did  it 
appear  in  your  common  conduct  ? 
That  excellent  faith  should  have  made 
you  honest,  generous,  considerate,  fra- 
ternal. Are  you  of  that  character  as 
the  consequence  of  your  creed  ?"  An- 
other may  say,  "I  was  devoted  to  the 
church;  I  entered  unfailingly  into  all 
its  rites  and  customs,  and  partook  of 
all  its  sacraments ;  I  was  baptized  and 
confirmed  and  came  with  uninterrupted 
regularity  to  the  Holy  Communion ; 
I  was  a  good  churchman  all  my  life." 
And  the  Lord  will  answer  :  "And  were 
you  also  a  good  Christian  ?  Did  the 
sacraments  of  the  church  inspire  you 
to  self-sacrifice  for  the  welfare  of 
others  ?  Were  you  more  kind  because 
you  went  to  church,  more  watchful  of 
opportunities  to  be  of  use,  more  re- 
strained in  your  criticism  of  your 

123 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

neighbors,  more  conscious  of  the  con- 
stant presence  of  God  ?" 

Neither  orthodoxy  nor  churchman- 
ship  shall  avail  anything  when  the 
Lord  says,  "I  was  anhungered,  and 
ye  gave  me  no  meat."  They  will 
only  aggravate  the  offence  of  our 
omissions.  "Why  call  ye  me  Lord, 
Lord,"  He  asks,  "and  do  not  the 
things  which  I  say?"  It  all  comes 
back  to  character.  That  is  both  su- 
preme and  essential.  It  is  the  real 
thing. 

The  debate  between  faith  and  works 
can  never  be  decided  by  the  formula 
"either,  or."  They  are  both  neces- 
sary. The  conflict  between  the  epistles 
of  St.  Paul  and  the  epistles  of  St. 
James  is  only  on  the  surface.  They 
are  both  right.  The  existence  of  the 
faith  on  which  St.  Paul  insisted  is 
shown  by  the  good  works  which,  as  St. 
James  said,  are  the  fruit  of  it.  And 
the  significance  of  the  works  — • 
whether  they  are  done  for  the  glory 
and  love  of  God,  or  only  for  the  praise 
of  man  —  is  measured  by  the  faith 
which  lies  behind.  For  faith,  as  the  vital 
124 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

part  of  works,  is  the  spirit  in  which  the 
works  are  done.  In  the  order  of  prog- 
ress, faith  passes  into  works,  as  the 
seed  passes  into  the  life  of  the  plant, 
and  is  made  evident  by  the  plant,  and 
is  for  the  sake  of  the  plant. 

Thus,  in  the  transfiguration  of  Christ, 
the  vision  came  first  and  then  the 
task :  first  the  revelation  of  the  divine 
presence  and  blessing,  then  the  con- 
veyance of  the  blessing  to  meet  the 
needs  of  men.  The  vision  was  for  the 
sake  of  the  task.  Thus,  Jesus  said, 
"For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself." 
He  enriched  His  own  spirit,  in  order 
that  thereby  He  might  be  of  larger 
service  to  His  disciples.  It  comes 
again  to  the  same  thing,  —  to  the 
requirement  of  character  as  the  supreme 
purpose  of  religion. 

The  question,  What  is  essential  in 
Christianity  ?  is  answered  in  two  ways. 
Some  say  that  the  essential  is  the  teach- 
ing of  Christ ;  some  say  that  the  essen- 
tial is  the  person  of  Christ.  Those 
who  emphasize  the  teaching  quote  the 
first  three  gospels,  the  narrative  gospels, 
whose  main  interest  is  to  tell  us  what 

125 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF,  RELIGION 

Christ  said  and  did.  Those  who  em- 
phasize the  person  quote  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  the  interpretative  gospel,  whose 
chief  interest  is  to  tell  us  what  Christ 
was,  and  is,  and  whose  intention  is 
plainly  stated  in  the  words,  "These 
are  written  that  ye  might  believe  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God." 

Even  so,  the  incarnation  and  the 
atonement  are  for  the  saving  of  men's 
souls.  They  are  filled  with  moral 
meanings.  They  are  bound  up  with 
conduct.  Between  these  apparently 
rival  interests,  on  one  side  in  the  teach- 
ing, on  the  other  side  in  the  person  of 
Christ,  there  is  no  exclusive  decision 
to  be  made.  The  teaching  of  Christ  is 
living,  appealing,  and  convincing  by 
virtue  of  His  personality  behind  it; 
much  of  it  had  been  taught  before ; 
what  He  did  was  to  make  it  real  by 
speaking  it  and  living  it.  And  the 
person  of  Christ  is  interpreted  by  the 
teaching;  the  reverence  which  is 
claimed  for  Him  is  based  on  the  disclos- 
ure of  an  ideal  character. 

When  we  ask,  then,  What  does 
Christ  desire  of  men  to-day  ?  What 
126 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

does  He  desire,  in  whom  God  and  man 
meet,  Who  discloses  the  being  of  God 
and  the  soul  of  man  and  the  true  rela- 
tion of  the  one  to  the  other  ?  What  is 
the  supreme  requirement  of  religion  ? 
the  answer  is  in  His  own  words,  again 
and  again  repeated.  He  desires  that 
we  may  do  the  will  of  God  on  earth  as 
it  is  in  heaven.  He  did  not  come  as  a 
sage,  gathering  men  about  Him  that 
He  might  reveal  to  them  the  mysteries 
of  the  unseen.  His  errand  was  wholly 
practical,  altogether  concerned  with 
conduct.  He  scandalized  the  strict 
religionists  of  His  time  by  His  disre- 
gard for  things  ecclesiastical.  For  such 
things  He  cared  nothing.  It  is  char- 
acteristic of  Him  that  He  ministered 
not  in  Jerusalem,  a  place  whose  main 
concern  was  centred  in  the  temple, 
but  in  Capernaum,  a  place  whose  main 
concern  was  centred  in  the  fish-market.^. 
He  found  congenial  followers,  not  among 
the  priests,  but  among  the  men  of 
business.  The  orthodox  churchmen 
instinctively  hated  Him.  They  per- 
ceived truly  that  His  success  meant 
their  ruin.  His  ideals  and  purposes 

127 


THE  REQUIREMENT  OF  RELIGION 

were  altogether  different  from  theirs. 
He  cared  about  conduct.  He  wanted 
to  make  men  honest,  and  pure,  and 
helpful,  and  thus  to  increase  the  happi- 
ness of  life.  He  was  crucified  by  a 
church  which  was  intent  on  the  advan- 
tage of  its  own  organization,  and  had 
no  care  for  the  community.  They 
crucified  Him  because  He  insisted  on 
enforcing  the  importance  of  goodness. 
He  died  in  defence  of  the  proposition 
that  true  religion  is  essentially  moral, 
and  that  the  supreme  requirement  of 
religion  is  character. 


128 


THE   CHRISTIAN  DEFINITION 
OF   CHARACTER 


THE  CHRISTIAN  DEFINITION 
OF  CHARACTER 

HE  assertion  that  the  supreme 
disclosure  of  God  teaches  that 
character  is  the  supreme  re- 
quirement of  religion  is  not  the 
whole  of  the  truth.  As  much  was  de- 
clared before  that  disclosure  was  made. 
The  importance  of  righteousness  is  the 
constant  message  of  the  Old  Testament. 
The  great  words,  "What  doth  the  Lord 
require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  and 
love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with 
thy  God,"  are  very  ancient  words. 
They  might  have  been  inscribed  over 
the  entrance  into  that  temple  whose 
Holy  of  Holies  enshrined  the  procla- 
mation of  the  moral  law.  The  prophets 
were  teachers  of  righteousness.  The 
heart  of  the  Bible  religion,  long  before 
Christ  came,  was  a  good  life. 

When  He  came,  He  added  something. 
He  brought  a  new  note  into  conduct, 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

raised  a  new  standard  of  behavior, 
introduced  a  new  definition  of  char- 
acter. 

This  is  evident  in  the  criticisms 
which  He  made  upon  the  ethical  ideals 
of  His  time.  When  He  told  His  dis- 
ciples that  except  their  righteousness 
should  exceed  the  righteousness  of  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees  they  could  not 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  He 
implied  thereby  not  only  that  these 
teachers  were  failing  to  observe  their 
own  best  principles,  but  that  He  had 
new  principles  in  mind. 

And  this  is  confirmed  by  the  aston- 
ishment with  which  they  received  His 
ethical  teaching  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount. 

One  reason  for  their  surprise  was  the 
manner  of  His  speech.  "He  taught 
as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as 
the  scribes."  He  spoke,  that  is,  with 
a  directness  to  which  they  were  not 
accustomed.  His  words  had  a  new 
tone  of  personal  conviction,  and  were 
enforced  by  the  use  of  a  new  pronoun. 
He  said  /.  And  this  He  said  not  only 
as  one  who  speaks  naturally,  after  the 
132 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

fashion  of  earnest  conversation,  say- 
ing "I"  as  we  all  do  when  we  talk  one 
with  another,  but  as  one  who  speaks 
originally,  declaring  His  own  thought 
in  contrast  with  those  who  are  only 
quoting  other  people's  thoughts. 
"You  have  heard,"  He  said,  "what 
the  fathers  have  taught,  you  know  what 
was  said  by  them  of  old  time,  but  I 
say  unto  you"  —  something  different 
from  that,  and  better. 

This  was  the  first  reason  for  the 
popular  astonishment.  The  people 
were  accustomed  to  the  manner  of  the 
scribes.  These  men,  as  the  name  indi- 
cates, were  copyists.  Their  business  ~ 
was  to  write  and  rewrite  not  their  own 
ideas,  nor  their  independent  conclusions 
or  convictions,  but  the  words  of  wise 
men  of  former  generations.  They  had 
no  intention  to  contribute  anything  to 
the  religion  of  their  day.  They  had  no 
criticism  upon  the  past  in  the  light  of 
new  experience,  new  reflection,  new 
instruction  from  God.  They  were  con- 
cerned only  to  repeat  what  they  had 
been  taught,  and  to  get  their  disciples 
to  repeat  it  accurately,  in  their  turn. 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

Their  teaching  was  all  from  the  text- 
book, at  second  hand,  a  series  of  quo- 
tations. Their  characteristic  formula 
was,  "It  is  written."  Thus  when  Jesus 
came,  speaking  His  own  mind,  declar- 
ing His  own  position,  differing  with- 
out hesitation  from  accepted  doctrines, 
quoting  from  nobody,  proclaiming  new 
ideas,  His  hearers  were  astonished  at 
His  teaching.  Of  course  they  were 
astonished.  In  all  their  respectable 
lives,  they  had  never  heard  anybody 
speak  like  that. 

But  there  was  another  reason  for 
their  surprise.  They  were  amazed  not 
only  at  the  manner,  but  at  the  matter 
of  His  speech.  They  were  astonished 
at  the  things  which  He  said.  His 
doctrine  was  not  only  new,  but  revolu- 
tionary. The  changes  which  He  pro- 
posed were  not  only,  nor  chiefly,  in 
the  field  of  belief,  but  in  the  field  of 
conduct.  A  new  creed  may  come  to 
the  minds  of  men  as  a  strange  thing, 
to  be  accepted  or  rejected,  and  they 
may  debate  it  eagerly,  for  and  against, 
but  there  is  at  first  a  certain  remote- 
ness and  even  unreality  about  it.  Not 

134 

r**v 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

for  a  long  time  does  it  appeal  to  people 
in  general  as  related  immediately  to 
their  own  lives.  That  is  not  so  of  a 
new  commandment.  The  creed  may 
seem  of  the  nature  of  theory,  but  the 
commandment  brings  matters  out  of 
the  world  of  thought  into  the  world  of 
action.  It  is  something  to  be  done. 
It  demands  decision.  It  calls  for  obedi- 
ence or  for  disobedience.  Christ  pro- 
claimed a  new  commandment,  a  new 
ideal  of  conduct,  a  new  test  of  the 
excellence  of  life,  a  new  definition  of 
character. 

It  is  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
that  we  are  to  go  to  learn  what  this 
new  definition  of  character  is. 

The  beginning  of  that  sermon  defines 
character  in  terms  of  aspiration.  Its 
first  words  are  the  beatitudes  of  in- 
completeness :  blessed  are  the  poor  in 
spirit,  blessed  are  they  that  mourn, 
blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness. 

These  words  are  intended  to  develop 
the  virtue  of  discontent.  They  praise 
those  who  are  discontented  not  so  much 
with  their  lot  in  life  as  with  themselves. 

135 


THE   DEFINITION  OF   CHARACTER 

It  is  only  in  the  spirit  of  such  discon- 
tent that  one  desires  to  be  different. 
And  that  desire  is  the  beginning  of  all 
betterment.  The  people  among  whom 
Jesus  could  do  nothing  were  those 
contented  persons  who  had  ceased  to 
be  receptive  because  they  had  become 
satisfied.  At  that  point,  they  stopped 
growing.  St.  Paul  had  the  same  expe- 
rience at  Athens.  He  failed  in  the 
university  city,  as  his  Master  had 
failed  in  the  cathedral  town.  The 
people  there  were  intellectually  con- 
tented ;  they  had  stopped  learning. 
Blessed,  says  Christ,  are  they  who 
perceive  their  needs,  and  are  aware 
of  their  negligences  and  ignorances, 
and  desire  to  be  better. 

This  quality  of  aspiration  is  made  a 

permanent    part   of   the    definition    of 

£\y-'       character  by  the  exaltation  of  ideals. 

Thus  the  beatitudes  differ  from  the 
commandments.  The  commandments 
are  negative  :  most  of  them  begin  with 
the  formula,  "Thou  shalt  not."  The 
beatitudes  are  positive :  "This  do, 
and  thou  shalt  live."  Both  of  these 
ways  of  dealing  with  conduct  are  neces- 
136 


THE  DEFINITION   OF   CHARACTER 

sary.  We  cannot  get  along  with  police- 
men only,  or  with  preachers  only. 
Some  persons  are  amenable  only  to 
prohibition,  put  in  strong  terms  and 
enforced  by  penalties.  Others  are  per- 
suaded by  reason,  by  the  plain  presen- 
tation of  the  thing  that  is  right.  But 
these  different  people  belong  evidently 
in  different  classes,  and  represent  dif- 
ferent stages  of  moral  progress.  Thus 
childhood  is  a  time  for  imperatives ; 
the  chief  virtue  is  an  unquestioning 
obedience.  The  same  rule  holds  with 
uneducated  and  undeveloped  races  and 
individuals.  They  must  live  under 
regulation.  They  must  be  explicitly 
directed.  Thus  the  commandments 
precede  the  beatitudes  not  only  in  the 
order  of  time,  but  in  the  order  of 
progress.  As  men  grow  wiser  and 
better,  they  pass  out  of  the  stage  of  the 
commandments  into  the  stage  of  the 
beatitudes. 

The  beatitudes  are  ideals.  Even 
if  the  formula,  "Thou  shalt  not, "  were 
changed,  and  the  decalogue  was  made 
to  command  a  series  of  positive  virtues, 
even  then  these  rules  would  not  be  on 

137 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

a  moral  equality  with  the  beatitudes. 
For  the  commandments,  however 
phrased,  are  laws ;  and  it  is  of  the 
nature  of  law  to  be  effective  from  with- 
out. It  is  imposed  and  enforced  by 
authority.  The  beatitudes  are  ideals. 
They  wait  not  for  any  authority,  but 
appeal  to  the  honest  and  free  desire 
of  the  soul. 

What  we  wish  to  do  in  school  and 
in  the  larger  world  of  business  and 
society  is  to  bring  youth  out  of  the 
range  of  laws  into  the  range  of  ideals. 
The  perfection  of  discipline  and  the 
success  of  religion  are  attained  when 
such  a  state  of  mind  is  secured  that  the 
right  thing  will  be  done  simply  because 
it  is  right.  All  the  people  will  then 
desire  that  which  the  best  people  desire, 
and  will  seek  not  to  evade  but  to 
enforce  it,  beginning  with  themselves. 
Then  the  lawyers  whose  business  it  is 
to  find  how  much  injustice  a  client 
may  commit  without  being  in  peril  of 
a  prison  will  be  without  employment. 

Character  is  defined  in  the  com- 
mandments as  a  goodness  which  con- 
sists in  obedience  to  the  laws.  But 
138 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

this  is  an  inferior  goodness,  not  only 
because  it  depends  on  the  enforcement 
of  the  laws,  but  because  it  extends 
only  to  speech  and  action,  not  to  , 
thought  and  motive.  Character  is  de-  ' 
fined  in  the  beatitudes  as  a  goodness 
which  consists  in  the  endeavor  to  attain 
ideals.  It  is  independent  of  all  laws ; 
never  asks,  What  does  the  law  say  ? 
never  asks,  What  must  I  do  ?  It  is  a 
glad  following  of  splendid  examples. 
It  is  a  joyous  exercise  of  high  principles. 
It  is  far  removed  from  what  is  called 
"eye-service,"  being  in  the  constant 
sight  of  God.  St.  Paul  was  always 
talking  about  the  bondage  of  the  law, 
and  rebuking  people  for  living  under 
the  law.  He  did  not  wish  them  to 
break  the  law.  What  he  wanted  was  a 
Christian  goodness  which  is  good  with- 
out formal  obligation,  from  the  sincere 
desire  of  a  good  heart. 

The  courts  and  the  churches  repre- 
sent these  two  kinds  of  appeal  to  the 
consciences  of  men :  the  appeal  of 
authority,  and  the  appeal  of  the  ideal. 
The  mission  of  the  church  in  the  mak- 
ing of  character  is  to  bring  into  the 

139 


THE   DEFINITION  OF   CHARACTER 

hearts  of  people  new  desires,  and  to 
help  them  to  bring  the  new  desires  to 
good  effect.  Thus  at  the  heart  of  the 
ethical  teaching  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion is  neither  a  commandment  nor  a 
beatitude,  but  a  Person  in  Whom  all 
the  commandments  and  beatitudes 
are  realized,  the  sight  of  Whom  gives 
us  our  supreme  ideal  and  encourages 
us  to  follow  it.  To  be  like  Him  is  the 
complete  definition  of  Christian  char- 
acter. 

A  study  of  the  beatitudes  dispels  the 
common  illusion  that  they  praise  only 
the    passive    virtues.     The    command- 
ments,   it   is   said,    have   in   mind   the 
active  life ;   the  beatitudes,  the  passive 
-  life.     The   inference   is   that  the   com- 
/  mandments  ^are   fitted   for   robust   na- 
tures, while  the  beatitudes  have  their 
proper  place  in  the  lives  of  quiet  people, 
who   are   neither  very  prosperous  nor 
very    well.     But    the    beatitudes    will 
:  not  bear  that  construction. 

It  is  true  that  they  set  forth  ideals 
which  may  be  attained  without  physical 
strength.     They  open  the  door  of  reli- 
gion, and  of  eminent  spiritual  achieve- 
140 


THE   DEFINITION  OF   CHARACTER 

ment,  to  women ;  and  are  thereby  the 
expression  of  a  notable  difference  be- 
tween Christianity  and  most  other 
religions.  Religion  is  commonly  ac- 
counted an  affair  for  men.  Only  in 
the  Christian  church  are  women  made 
welcome  and  received  as  equals. 

It  is  true  that  the  beatitudes  set 
forth  ideals  which  may  be  attained 
without  material  prosperity.  The 
blessing  of  God  which  is  independent 
of  strength  of  arm  is  independent 
also  of  weight  of  purse.  Christianity 
is  a  poor  man's  religion,  and  has  had 
a  welcome  for  the  poor,  since  the  day 
when  its  Founder  came  out  of  a  car- 
penter shop. 

In  both  of  these  respects,  the  beati- 
tudes present  a  new  idea  of  greatness. 
A  most  important  factor  in  the  life  of 
any  people  is  their  ideal  of  greatness, 
because  that  is  the  goal  which  the  youth 
of  the  people  will  desire  to  attain. 
They  will  surely  direct  their  energies 
that  way.  It  is  of  mighty  importance 
what  sort  of  standard  of  success  is 
commonly  accepted.  Is  the  supreme 
hero  the  successful  soldier  ?  Is  he  the 

141 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

successful  merchant  ?  Blessed  is  the 
people  whose  chief  hero  is  a  saint, 
whose  eminence  consists  in  character, 
whose  integrity,  and  courage,  and 
purity,  and  service,  and  self-sacrifice 
are  the  glory  of  the  nation. 

But  the  saint,  as  he  is  depicted  in  the 
beatitudes,  is  by  no  means  a  passive 
person.  The  beatitudes  are  by  no 
means  in  praise  of  quiet  virtues  only, 
belonging  to  the  cloister  and  the 
sheltered  life. 

Three  times  the  Lord  blesses  dis- 
content, the  most  revolutionary  and 
dynamic  of  the  virtues  :  when  He 
praises  the  poor,  the  sad,  and  the 
hungry,  and  promises  that  they  shall 
be  satisfied  presently.  All  revolt 
against  injustice,  all  social  change,  all 
reformations,  march  under  these  sen- 
tences. 

Twice  He  blesses  service.  Blessed 
are  the  merciful,  who  are  engaged  in 
the  abolition  of  pain.  It  means  phy- 
sicians, who  are  contending  with  disease, 
and  reformers,  who  are  fighting  the 
battles  of  the  weak  against  the  selfish- 
ness and  cruelty  of  the  strong.  And 
142 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  who  are 
engaged  in  the  abolition  of  hate.  It 
means  lawyers,  who  are  enlisted  against 
injustice,  and  statesmen,  who  are  trying 
to  put  an  end  to  the  belated  barbarismj/v^ 
of  war,  and  to  get  the  nations  to  settle 
their  differences  like  civilized  citizens. 

Once  He  blesses  sincerity,  when  He 
praises  the  pure  in  heart.  These  are 
they  who  are  without  hypocrisy,  and 
who  speak  the  truth.  They  are  not 
passive  persons.  Emerson  said,  "_He 
who  habitually  speaks  the  truth  will 
find  himself  in  situations  sufficiently 
dramatic."  To  be  faithful  to  one's v 
own  convictions,  to  be  loyal  to  one's 
own  ideals ;  under  difficulty,  in  the 
midst  of  adverse  circumstances,  in  a 
minority,  to  speak  the  truth,  —  every-  • 
body  in  business,  everybody  in  society, 
knows  by  experience  —  and  most  of  us 
by  sad  experience — how  hard  that  is. , 

Once  He  blesses  constancy,  when 
He  praises  those  who  are  persecuted. 
They  would  not  be  persecuted  if  they 
were  willing  to  submit.  Passive  per- 
sons rarely  feel  the  hand  of  persecution. 
It  is  the  constant,  the  unyielding,  the 

H3 


THE   DEFINITION   OF   CHARACTER 

people  who  persist  and  go  on  undaunted 
and  unchanged,  who  are  persecuted. 
The  purpose  of  persecution  is  to  make 
men  change  their  minds,  or,  at  least, 
to  make  them  say  that  they  have 
changed  their  minds.  The  purpose  of 
persecution  is  to  make  men  stop  the 
thing  which  they  are  doing.  They 
who  are  praised  in  the  beatitudes 
will  not  stop.  They  defy  persecution. 

Once,  indeed,  He  blesses  meekness. 
And  here,  it  seems,  is  a  virtue  which  is 
plainly  passive.  Is  not  meekness  sy- 
nonymous with  passivity  ?  Does  it  not 
consist  in  quietness,  and  silence,  and 
folded  hands,  and  downcast  eyes  ?  Is 
it  not  a  feminine  grace,  wholly  different 
from  masculine  strength  ?  Chaucer 
has  glorified  it  in  the  person  of  patient 
Griselda,  who  suffers  all  manner  of 
domestic  tyranny  without  retaliation 
or  reply,  smiling  the  difficult  smile 
of  duty.  Does  it  not  consist  in  the 
prudent  quality  of  having  no  opinion 
of  one's  own  ? 

Not  according  to  the  examples  of  it 
in  the  Bible ;  where  the  meekest  man 
in  the  Old  Testament  is  Moses,  and 
144 


THE  DEFINITION  OF  CHARACTER 

the  meekest  man  in  the  New  Testament 
is  Jesus  Christ.  These  examples  com- 
pel a  new  definition  of  meekness ;  or, 
rather,  they  send  us  back  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  which  was  in  the  minds 
of  the  makers  of  the  English  Bible. 
They  made  meekness  synonymous  with 
unselfishness.  It  signified  a  subordi- 
nation of  self,  indeed,  but  not  in  indo- 
lence, still  less  in  cowardice.  The 
meek  man  sought  not  his  own  advan- 
tage, but,  at  the  same  time  and  in  the 
same  spirit,  he  sought  the  good  of  his 
neighbor  or  of  the  whole  community  of 
neighbors.  He  asserted  not  his  own 
rights,  but  the  common  rights,  and  to 
maintain  them  he  contended  mightily. 
Thus  Thomas  Malory  called  Sir  Laun- 
celot  the  meekest  of  knights.  The 
adjective  was  too  good  for  the  hero, 
but  the  use  of  it  shows  how  naturally 
it  goes  with  fighting  habits.  The  most 
dangerous  enemy  of  public  wrong 
is  a  meek  man.  When  he  appears, 
dishonest  politicians  tremble.  Asking 
nothing  for  himself,  he  is  invulnerable 
to  threats  and  bribes  alike.  His  is 
the  most  militant  of  virtues. 

L  145 


THE  PRACTICE   OF  RELIGION 


THE   PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

HE  Christian  definition  of 
character  which  is  set  forth 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
in  terms  of  aspiration  is  fur- 
ther declared  in  that  disclosure  in  terms 
of  motive  and  in  terms  of  service. 

The  presentation  of  character,  not 
as  a  matter  of  obligation,  to  be  enjoined 
in  laws  and  enforced  by  courts,  but  as 
a  matter  of  aspiration,  to  be  desired 
and  endeavored  after,  prepares  the 
way  for  the  statement  that  the  heart  of 
character  is  not  an  act,  but  a  motive. 

To  inspire  men  to  right  living,  in- 
stead of  compelling  them,  is  to  intro- 
duce into  ethics  a  new  method ;  but 
to  teach  that  obedience  to  the  law  con- 
sists not  in  action  only,  but  in  motive, 
is  to  introduce  a  new  meaning.  Char- 
acter thus  interpreted  is  a  matter  first 
of  being,  then  of  doing.  The  initial 
and  essential  part  of  it  is  what  we  are.  / 

149 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

Even  what  we  desire  to  be,  though  we 
fail  to  attain  it,  —  even  that,  as  Brown- 
ing says,  counts  to  our  good.  The 
necessary  thing  is  the  quality  of  life. 
It  may  result  in  great  achievement ; 
it  may  result  in  failure.  That  depends, 
in  great  part,  on  the  circumstances. 
Sometimes  it  is  easy  to  be  good,  — 
in  some  surroundings,  under  restrain- 
ing and  assisting  influences,  —  some- 
times it  is  tremendously  difficult.  In 
the  parable  of  the  talents,  the  man 
who  made  his  five  talents  earn  five, 
and  the  man  who  made  his  two  talents 
earn  two,  are  rewarded  alike.  They 
get  the  same  blessing,  in  the  same 
words.  The  man  with  the  one  talent 
is  reprobated  not  because  he  failed  to 
make  it  five  or  two,  or  even  one,  but 
because  he  did  not  even  try  to  make 
it  anything.  The  blame  which  was 
visited  upon  him  was  not  for  lack  of 
gain,  but  for  lack  of  character. 

Accordingly,  Jesus  took  the  com- 
mandments in  which  the  obligations 
of  character  are  expressed,  and  gave 
them  a  new  and  surprising  interpre- 
tation. 

ISO 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

The  law,  "Thou  shalt  not  kill," 
forbids,  He  says,  all  unf raternal  thought. 
The  murderer  breaks  it,  but  so  does  the 
man  who  is  angry  with  his  brother. 
He  transgresses  the  commandment  who 
cries,  "Thou  fool,"  and  curses  his 
brother  and  strikes  him ;  but  so  also 
does  he  who  only  says,  "Thou  fool," 
under  his  breath,  and  does  not  lift 
his  hand.  The  offence  is  in  the  spirit, 
in  the  motive. 

The  law,  "Thou  shalt  not  commit 
adultery,"  forbids,  Christ  says,  all  im- 
pure desires.  It  lays  its  hand,  indeed, 
on  the  man  who  steals  his  neighbor's 
wife,  but  also  on  the  man  who  accom- 
plishes that  primitive  kind  of  plunder 
by  the  processes  of  law.  He  is  divorced 
by  the  courts,  and  she  is  divorced  by 
the  courts,  and  thus  they  marry.  It  is 
a  longer  method,  but  also  a  safer  one, 
than  the  old  savage  fashion  of  beating 
the  husband  with  a  club  and  carrying 
off  the  wife  on  horseback,  but  it  is 
essentially  the  same  thing.  It  may 
not  involve  a  definite  act  of  adultery ; 
that  may  not  precede,  but  follow,  the 
divorce.  But  that  is  only  a  detail. 


THE   PRACTICE  OF   RELIGION 

And  not  only  is  he  an  adulterer  who, 
in  any  manner,  however  prudent,  steals 
his  neighbor's  wife,  but  he  is  also  a 
member  of  that  unclean  and  poisonous 
company  who  desires  to  do  it,  and  would 
if  he  dared,  but  dares  not.  He  is  a 
coward  as  well  as  an  adulterer.  And 
with  him  belong  all  readers  of  sensual 
books,  and  all  frequenters  of  sensual 
plays,  and  all  admirers  of  sensual 
pictures,  and  all  thinkers  of  sensual 
thoughts ;  no  matter  how  decent  they 
appear.  The  rottenness  is  in  the  mind 
and  heart.  It  is  in  the  motive.  And 
that  determines  the  true  quality  of 
character. 

Nothing  so  searching  and  disconcert- 
ing was  ever  said. 

It  is  dimly  illustrated  by  that  recent 
change  in  public  opinion  and  in  the 
enforcement  of  the  law,  whereby  men 
were  sent  to  prison  for  conducting 
their  business  according  to  methods 
which,  up  to  that  time,  had  been  com- 
monly considered  proper.  Anyhow, 
proper  or  not,  they  were  in  common 
use,  and  the  fact  constituted  a  general 
standard  by  which  they  were  permitted. 
152 


THE   PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

Excellent  men  were  aghast  to  find 
themselves  suddenly  exposed  to  execra- 
tion. The  scribes  and  Pharisees  had 
the  same  feeling. 

The  new  definition  of  character  ex- 
posed the  sins  of  the  respectable.  It 
made  ridiculous  the  men  who  said, 
"All  these  commandments  have  I  kept 
from  my  youth  up."  According  to  this 
emphasis  on  motive  as  the  decisive 
element  in  conduct,  all  men  are  sin- 
ners, every  one.  The  very  saints  are 
sinners. 

Indeed,  one  of  the  differences  between 
saints  and  sinners  is  that  the  saints 
know  that  they  are  sinners,  while  the 
sinners  do  not  know,  or  do  not  care.  It 
is  in  religion  as  in  philosophy.  The 
wise  man,  as  Socrates  contended,  is  he 
who  is  aware  of  his  own  ignorance ; 
the  ignorant  man  is  of  the  opinion  that 
he  knows  all  that  is  worth  knowing. 
Socrates  was  put  to  death  because  he 
made  it  his  business  to  show  that  the 
sages  of  Athens  were  not  so  wise  as 
they  looked.  Jesus  was  put  to  death 
because  He  made  it  His  business  to 
show  that  the  saints  of  Jerusalem  were 

153 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

not  so  good  as  they  seemed.  The 
effect  of  Christ's  teaching  was  to  change 
the  field  of  ethics  from  the  street  to  the 
heart.  He  disclosed  a  whole  new  series 
of  sins.  A  great  company  of  eminently 
respectable  and  self-satisfied  persons 
were  declared  to  be  under  the  con- 
demnation of  God. 

This  interpretation  of  the  command- 
ments was  extended  to  the  customs 
which  were  characteristic  of  the  current 
religion.  Christ  took  three  of  them, 
—  almsgiving,  prayer,  and  fasting,  — 
and  showed  that  not  one  of  them  has 
any  value  in  itself.  One  may  keep 
these  customs,  and  all  others,  carefully 
and  diligently,  and  yet  not  be  in  any 
true  sense  religious,  or  even  righteous. 
One  may  give  alms  and  fast  and  pray 
without  being  good.  The  combina- 
tion has  been  effected  innumerable 
times. 

The  significance  of  these  things  de- 
pends upon  their  motive.  When  alms 
are  given  to  the  accompaniment  of 
trumpets,  so  that  everybody  may  know 
who  gives,  and  how  much ;  when 
prayers  are  said  in  public,  on  the 

154 


THE   PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

corners  of  the  streets ;  when  they  who 
fast  put  on  a  sad  face,  and  dress  them- 
selves in  penitential  clothes, — the  infer- 
ence is  that  these  devout  acts  are  done 
for  popular  effect,  to  attract  attention, 
and  to  gain  applause.  They  get  it, 
Jesus  said ;  but  that  is  all  they  get. 
As  for  the  favor  of  God,  they  made  no 
endeavor  after  that.  He  values  the 
words  and  deeds  of  men  according  to 
their  sincere  intention.  The  principle, 
"Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 
he  also  reap,"  applies  here  as  in  all  life. 
The  idea  that  one  who  sows  the  seeds 
whose  harvest  is  only  the  praise  of  men 
may  expect  also  the  praise  of  God,  is 
like  the  idea  that  thistle  seeds  may 
grow  presently  into  grape-vines.  They 
are  rewarded  of  God  who  seek  for  His 
reward. 

Give  your  alms  in  secret,  Jesus  said. 
When  you  pray,  go  into  your  own  room 
and  shut  the  door  behind  you.  When 
you  fast,  wash  your  face  and  be  of  a 
cheerful  countenance,  and  say  nothing 
about  fasting. 

It  was  in  accordance  with  this  per- 
spective, whereby  the  quality  and  im- 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

portance  of  the  act  are  determined  by 
the  motive,  and  men  are  judged  not 
only  by  what  they  say  and  do,  but  by 
what  they  are,  that  Jesus  amazed  His 
contemporaries  by  His  severity  on  the 
one  side  toward  those  who  were  ac- 
counted saints,  and  His  kindness  on 
the  other  side  toward  those  who  were 
accounted  sinners.  He  was  very  con- 
siderate of  the  sinners  of  the  street,  but 
very  hard  upon  the  sinners  of  the 
church. 

This  was  in  part  because  the  church 
sinners  were  so  self-satisfied  that  only 
the  unexpected  thrust  of  a  hard  word 
would  arouse  them ;  but  also  because 
they  were  actually,  in  His  judgment, 
the  worse  of  the  two.  There  was  some 
hope  for  common  sinners  :  often,  they 
knew  their  ill  condition  and  were  sorry 
for  it ;  often,  they  had  fallen  into  sin 
under  the  impulse  of  some  sudden,  over- 
mastering temptation.  But  the  re- 
spectable sinners  were  hypocrites. 
Their  serene  faces,  their  good  words, 
their  public  charities,  their  devout 
attendance  at  religious  services,  aggra- 
vated their  offences.  The  sight  of 

156 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

their  superficial  respectability  filled  the 
soul  of  Jesus  with  indignation. 

A  man  in  the  heat  of  passion  kills 
his  neighbor ;  another  man  in  the  cold- 
ness of  selfish  calculation  cuts  down 
his  neighbor's  wages,  steals  his  busi- 
ness, robs  him,  ruins  him.  They  are 
both  of  them  murderers  together ;  but 
the  respectable,  church-going  murderer 
gets  the  worse  blame  of  God.  The 
man  who  sells  liquor  over  the  bar, 
and  sees  with  his  own  eyes  the  working 
of  the  poison  in  the  corruption  of  human 
life,  is  bad  enough ;  but  the  esteemed 
citizen  who  owns  the  business  is  worse, 
according  to  the  Christian  definition. 
Between  the  prostitute  and  the  poli- 
tician who  profits  by  her  trade,  there 
is  no  difference ;  except  that  which 
says  to  the  prostitute,  "Neither  do  I 
condemn  thee,  go  and  sin  no  more"; 
and  to  the  politician,  "Ye  generation 
of  vipers,  how  shall  ye  escape  the  dam- 
nation of  hell." 

The  statement  that  the  heart  of 
character  is  not  an  act,  but  a  motive, 
leads  to  a  definition  of  motive  in  terms 
of  social  service. 

157 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

The  great  thing,  indeed,  is  to  please 
not  men,  but  God ;  but  God  is  pleased  by 
the  service  of  humanity.  Thus  Christ 
not  only  interpreted  the  old  command- 
ments in  a  new  way,  but  He  added  a 
new  commandment.  This  command- 
ment, as  stated  in  the  Golden  Rule, 
had  been  taught  before.  Confucius 
had  expressed  it  in  a  negative  form, 
advising  his  disciples  not  to  do  that 
which  they  would  not  like  to  have 
others  do  to  them.  The  formula, 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself,"  was  a  deduction  from  the 
Jewish  law.  "Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even 
so  to  them,"  was  but  another  expres- 
sion of  it. 

Even  in  theory,  however,  as  Christ 
said,  the  Jewish  rule  interpreted  the 
word  "neighbor"  as  remotely  differ- 
ent from  the  word  "enemy."  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor,"  the  men  of 
old  time  said,  "but  hate  thine  enemy." 
The  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
denned  a  neighbor  as  any  one,  of  any 
nation  or  condition,  who  is  in  need  of 
help.  But  the  new  teaching  did  not 
158 


THE   PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

stop  there.  "I  say  unto  you,  Love 
your  enemies."  And  this  strong  say- 
ing was  explained  and  applied  in  the 
sentence  which  is  called  the  new  com- 
mandment. "A  new  commandment 
give  I  unto  you,  That  ye  love  one 
another,  as  I  have  loved  you  that  ye 
also  love  one  another."  In  this  sen- 
tence, the  Christian  definition  of  char- 
acter is  completed.  Character  con- 
sists in  aspiration,  whereby  we  desire 
to  be  better;  it  consists  in  motive, 
whereby  all  our  goodness  is  estimated 
according  to  its  meaning  in  the  sight 
of  Him  who  knows  the  heart  of  man ; 
and  aspiration  and  motive  meet  in 
service,  whereby  we  advance  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  by  increasing  the 
common  stock  of  happiness,  accord- 
ing to  the  ideal  set  by  Jesus  Christ 
Himself. 

Thus,  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  at 
the  beginning  of  Christianity  as  an 
organized  religion,  the  apostles  came 
down  out  of  the  upper  room  into  the 
street.  That  was  their  immediate 
impulse.  In  the  upper  room,  the 
pentecostal  wind  was  blowing  and  the 

159 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

pentecostal  flames  were  blazing,  but 
the  apostles  could  not  stay.  The  place 
was  filled  with  benediction,  and  the 
symbols  of  the  wind  and  fire  were  assur- 
ances of  the  divine  presence ;  but  the 
apostles  were  eager  to  share  the  bene- 
diction with  others,  and,  as  for  the 
divine  presence,  they  perceived  that 
that  was  to  be  found  in  the  street  also. 
They  betook  themselves  instinctively 
to  the  work  of  social  service.  The 
nearness  of  God  impelled  them  to  get 
near  to  men. 

The  particular  instructions  of  Jesus, 
by  which  He  applied  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  to  social  service,  have  been 
criticised  on  the  ground  that  they 
cannot  be  obeyed.  Nobody,  it  is  said, 
can  do  these  things  under  the  condi- 
tions of  human  nature.  And  if  they 
could  be  done,  the  result  would  be 
more  harm  than  good.  Thus  the  coun- 
sel, "Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee, 
and  from  him  that  would  borrow  of 
thee  turn  not  thou  away,"  would 
destroy  all  efficient  charity,  make  an 
army  of  idle  paupers,  and  put  an  end 
to  all  reasonable  financial  business. 
160 


THE   PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION" 

No  wise  man  will  give  to  all  askers, 
or  lend  to  all  borrowers.  The  same 
holds  true  against  the  counsel,  "Take 
no  thought  for  the  morrow,"  though 
here  this  explanation  that  the  word 
means  "take  no  anxious  thought" 
mitigates  a  little  the  seeming  abandon- 
ment of  prudence.  So  with  the  advice 
to  give  our  cloak  to  everybody  who  by 
violence  takes  our  coat,  and  to  turn  the 
other  cheek  to  him  who  strikes  us,  and, 
in  general,  to  love  our  enemies. 

It  may  be  said,  in  reply  to  these 
criticisms,  that  Christ  knew  very  well 
that  human  nature  would  not  be  misled 
by  His  strong  words.  He  knew  that 
men  would  make  for  themselves  all  the 
necessary  abatements.  He  was  setting 
Himself,  at  the  moment,  against  a 
selfishness  which  is  as  old  as  time  and 
as  universal  as  the  race  of  man.  He 
was  fighting  it,  and  striking  the  blows 
which  belong  to  battles.  The  idea  that 
His  words  are  to  be  read  as  if  He  were 
quietly  discussing  the  principles  of  a 
utilitarian  philosophy,  is  wholly  remote 
from  the  situation.  His  method  was 
to  stir  His  hearers  into  attention  by 
M  161 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

putting  His  truth  in  such  a  way  as  to 
amaze  them. 

Also,  in  a  time  when  nobody  was 
making  a  written  record  and  publishing 
it,  He  got  His  words  remembered.  His 
hearers  could  not  forget  what  He  said. 
He  was  intent  on  the  immediate  effect. 
At  other  times,  He  supplied  some 
needed  counterbalance. 

It  is  true  that  He  told  one  man  to 
sell  his  goods  and  give  the  money  to  the 
poor,  but  He  gave  no  such  advice  to 
other  rich  persons  whom  He  knew. 
The  parable  of  the  talents  praises  the 
industry  which  succeeds  in  business. 
It  is  true  that  St.  Paul,  when  he  was 
struck  on  one  cheek,  and,  instead  of 
turning  the  other,  flamed  out,  "God 
shall  smite  thee,  thou  whited  wall," 
immediately  apologized ;  but  Jesus 
Himself  did  not  turn  the  other  cheek ; 
when  He  was  struck,  He  said,  "If  I 
have  spoken  evil,  bear  witness  of  the 
evil,  but  if  well,  why  smitest  thou 
me?" 

Nevertheless,  the  words  as  they  stand 
in  the  Sermon  express  a  certain  self- 
forgetting  recklessness  which  is  char- 
162 


THE   PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

acteristic  of  Christian  heroism.  How- 
ever remote  from  the  ordinary  pursuit 
of  business  and  the  common  conduct 
of  life,  they  have  supplied,  and  will 
again  supply,  the  watchwords  of  revolu- 
tions and  crises  and  great  social  move- 
ments. It  is  in  the  spirit  of  the  literal 
words  that  martyrs  and  confessors 
have  behaved  themselves.  Francis  of 
Assisi,  taking  these  counsels  without 
mitigation,  changed  the  life  of  Europe.  . 
It  illustrates  their  fighting  value. 
They  may  hang  on  the  wall  in  times  of 
peace,  and  gather  dust  and  rust,  but 
the  times  come  when  they  must  be 
taken  down  and  used. 

Meanwhile,  the  social  meaning  of 
Christianity  is  plain  and  constant. 
It  is  true  that  God  and  one  man  are 
enough  for  most  religions,  but  that  it 
takes  God  and  two  men  to  make  the 
Christian  religion  possible.  The  dis- 
tinctive Christian  virtues  are  social 
virtues.  He  who  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  is 
against  selfishness.  He  went  about 
doing  good,  for  our  example.  He  was 
occupied,  without  rest,  in  the  difficult 

163 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  RELIGION 

endeavor  to  make  men  brotherly.  The 
true  saint,  as  He  both  taught  and  prac- 
tised, is  not  a  solitary  person  saying 
his  prayers,  but  a  strong  and  cheerful 
and  effective  participant  in  the  life  of 
society,  occupied  in  good  works.  When 
He  described  the  Day  of  Judgment, 
and  thus  set  forth  the  essential  quality 
of  acceptable  living,  He  made  the  single 
test  of  life  to  consist  in  social  service. 
They  who  are  blessed  of  God  have 
served  Him  by  serving  their  fellow-men. 
They  who  have  omitted  such  service 
have  no  equivalent  virtues  or  attain- 
ments. They  may  not  plead  the  excel- 
lence of  their  private  life,  their  honesty, 
truth,  purity,  their  individual  merits. 
These  are  admirable,  but  they  are  not 
sufficient.  The  sole  determining  ques- 
tion is,  "What  have  you  done  for  the 
good  of  others  ?" 


164 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

'HE  practice  of  religion,  in- 
terpreted in  terms  of  aspira- 
tion, of  motive,  and  of 
service,  involves  in  detail  a 
certain  relation  to  the  world,  the  flesh, 
and  the  devil.  It  implies,  in  the  words 
of  an  ancient  formulary,  a  renunciation 
of  "the  devil  and  all  his  works,  the 
pomps  and  vanity  of  this  wicked  world, 
and  all  the  sinful  lusts  of  the  flesh." 

In  the  Old  Testament,  the  man  of 
religion  is  commonly  a  man  of  the 
world :  of  the  world,  in  the  good  mean- 
ing of  the  phrase.  He  is  a  leader  of 
men,  and  a  founder  of  institutions,  like 
Moses.  He  is  a  soldier  and  a  com- 
mander of  armies,  like  Joshua.  He  is 
a  king-maker,  like  Samuel ;  or  a  king, 
like  Solomon.  Sometimes,  indeed,  he 
cries,  with  the  writer  of  Ecclesiastes, 
"Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity"; 
but  this  is  in  his  old  age,  when  he  has 

167 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

discovered  the  emptiness  of  a  worldly 
life  by  long  and  intimate  experience. 

It  is  true  that  some  of  the  prophets 
were  enemies  of  the  established  order, 
fomenters  of  revolution,  like  Elijah 
and  Elisha,  suggesting  the  assassina- 
tion of  kings.  They  reviled  the 
church,  like  Amos.  They  stood  among 
the  peasants,  like  Micah,  and  assailed 
the  wealth  and  luxury  of  cities.  Others, 
however,  like  Isaiah,  were  themselves 
a  part  of  the  established  order,  gentle- 
men and  courtiers,  men  of  religion, 
but  men  of  the  world,  also. 

In  the  New  Testament,  the  man  of 
religion  is  so  separate  from  the  world 
that  he  accounts  the  world  irreligious. 
He  has  no  share  in  politics,  and  takes 
no  interest  in  the  affairs  of  government. 
He  is  not  in  society.  He  has  no  money. 
He  finds  it  easy  to  recite  beneath  his 
breath  the  malediction  of  St.  James : 
"Go  to,  ye  rich  men,  weep  and  howl 
for  the  miseries  which  shall  come 
upon  you";  because  he  has  no  friends 
who  are  included  in  that  condemnation. 

It  is  true  that  one  of  the  apostles, 
St.  Matthew,  held  a  government  office ; 
168 


RELIGION  AND   THE   WORLD 

but  he  resigned  it.  Barnabas  owned 
property  in  Cyprus,  but  he  sold  it 
and  gave  away  the  money.  That,  in- 
deed, was  a  condition  —  though  not  a 
universal  condition  —  of  discipleship. 
Nicodemus  was  ready  to  be  a  disciple, 
if  he  might  continue  to  be  a  senator; 
but  Jesus  would  not  receive  him  on 
those  terms.  The  difficulty,  indeed, 
was  not  so  much  about  the  senatorship, 
as  about  the  desire  of  Nicodemus  to 
keep  his  allegiance  secret ;  but  the 
requirement  of  complete  loyalty  to 
Christ  seemed  to  make  other  interests 
impertinent  and  hostile. 

The  rich  young  ruler  who  said, 
"What  good  thing  shall  I  do  that  I 
may  have  eternal  life  ?  "  was  told  to 
sell  all  that  he  had  and  give  to  the  poor. 
This  was  an  individual  requirement, 
prescribed  for  the  conditions  of  a 
particular  case.  There  is  no  sign  of 
such  a  doctrine  in  the  parable  of  the 
talents.  There  the  men  are  praised 
who  were  diligent  and  successful  in 
their  business.  The  words,  "the  mam- 
mon of  unrighteousness,"  seem  to 
refer  to  money,  but  this  has  its  good 

169 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

uses.  It  is  only  the  love  of  money, 
as  is  said  later  in  the  New  Testament, 
which  is  the  root  of  all  evil. 

Nevertheless,  behind  these  instances, 
there  was  an  insistence  on  a  renuncia- 
tion which  seemed  to  include  the  good 
with  the  bad.  The  world,  in  the  New 
Testament,  seems  to  mean  the  ordinary 
occupations  and  pleasures  of  men. 
Whatever  is  not  of  religion,  whatever 
is  not  immediately  connected  with 
prayer  and  praise,  and  with  the  con- 
cerns of  the  soul,  is  of  the  world.  St. 
Paul's  earliest  epistles,  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  were  written  to  men  who  for 
the  sake  of  religion  were  giving  up 
their  work.  They  were  abandoning 
the  interests  of  this  present  life,  and 
looking  up  expectantly  to  heaven.  St. 
Paul  gave  them  good  advice,  and  sent 
them  back  to  their  shops  and  markets ; 
but  the  incident  illustrates  the  ease 
with  which  the  early  Christians  sepa- 
rated themselves  from  the  duties  of  the 
world. 

The  difference  between  the  two 
Testaments  is  probably  due  in  part  to 
the  increasing  wickedness  of  the  world. 
170 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

The  world  of  Solomon  was  bad 
enough,  but  its  evil  was  simple  and 
unsophisticated  compared  with  the 
world  of  Caesar.  The  opening  chapter 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  so  frank 
in  its  disclosure  of  the  corruption  of  the 
Roman  world  that  it  is  unfit  to  be  read 
in  church.  The  doctrines  of  original 
sin  and  total  depravity  were  reasonable 
inferences  from  the  social  situation. 
The  only  right  and  safe  procedure  for 
a  Christian  seemed  to  be  to  keep  away 
from  the  wicked  world. 

The  different  definitions  of  worldli- 
ness  in  the  two  Testaments  are  due 
also  to  a  change  in  the  political  and 
social  condition. 

The  New  Testament  people  had  lost 
their  political  independence,  and  their 
political  responsibility  had  perished 
with  it.  They  were  in  subjection. 
They  could  do  nothing.  Had  St.  Paul 
followed  the  example  of  Isaiah,  we 
should  never  have  known  of  his  exist- 
ence. He  would  have  died  suddenly, 
after  his  first  speech.  See  how  the 
radical  and  revolutionary  boldness  with 
which  he  confronted  the  contemporary 

171 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

church  passes  into  prudent  compli- 
ance when  he  confronts  the  contem- 
porary state.  "Honor  the  king!"  he 
says.  The  king  at  that  moment  being 
Nero,  the  counsel  was  a  difficult  one  to 
follow;  but  it  was  necessary,  in  the 
circumstances.  One  can  hardly  carry  on 
two  successful  revolutions  at  the  same 
time,  and  Paul,  most  wisely,  addressed 
himself  to  the  revolution  in  religion. 

It  was  evidently  easy,  however,  to 
confuse^  the  good  with  the  bad  in  the 
condemnation  of  the  world.  The  bad 
world  was  rich ;  riches,  then,  were 
worldly  possessions,  and  only  poverty 
was  truly  righteous.  The  bad  world 
amused  itself  in  the  theatre  and  the 
amphitheatre ;  and  the  things  in  which 
it  delighted  in  those  places  undeniably 
affected  the  soul  like  a  disease ;  there- 
fore all  amusements  were  of  the  world 
worldly.  The  bad  world  sat  on  all 
thrones,  administered  all  the  laws, 
collected  all  the  taxes,  and  governed 
the  nations ;  all  that,  then,  was  of  the 
world. 

A  third  reason  for  the  difference 
between  the  Old  Testament  identifica- 
172 

i^i*^L  *- 
&-+M 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

tion  with  the  world  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment separation  from  the  world  was 
the  New  Testament  conviction  that 
the  days  of  the  world  are  numbered. 

Not  only  was  the  world  bad,  and 
not  only  did  the  badness  of  the  world 
taint  all  its  interests  and  actions,  but 
the  whole  world,  bad  and  good,  and 
all  the  innocent  concerns  of  life,  were 
near  their  inevitable  end.  To-morrow 
morning,  when  the  cock  crows,  the 
sound  may  loose  the  solid  foundations 
of  the  sky,  and  the  stars  may  fall,  and 
the  Son  of  Man  may  come.  The  sense 
of  emergency  which  pervades  Christ's 
doctrine  of  renunciation,  calling  men, 
as  in  the  crisis  of  a  war,  to  leave  all 
and  follow  Him,  became  a  dramatic 
and  universal  fact  in  the  light  of  this 
expectation  of  the  end  of  the  world. 
The  ties  which  hold  the  ordinary  life 
together  lose  their  importance  at  the 
approach  of  such  a  culmination  and 
winding  up  of  all  human  affairs.  Some, 
at  least,  of  the  counsels  of  the  New 
Testament  are  to  be  read  as  applicable 
rather  to  such  a  situation  than  to  the 
common  course  of  human  life. 

173 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

In  the  midst  of  these  confused  judg- 
ments as  to  what  is  worldly  and  what 
is  not,  and  as  to  the  limits  of  the  renun- 
ciation of  the  world,  appears  the  great 
figure  of  Jesus  Christ.  His  precept  is 
contained  in  His  desire  for  His  disciples, 
not  that  they  may  be  taken  out  of  the 
world,  but  that  they  may  be  kept 
from  the  evil  of  it.  And  this  He  con- 
firms by  His  example.  In  a  time  when 
the  religious  life  was  lived  as  by  machin- 
ery, in  a  complication  and  tangle  of 
regulation  and  prohibition,  He  lived 
freely  and  naturally.  He  entered  with 
frank  human  pleasure  into  the  fes- 
tivities of  the  society  about  Him,  till 
His  enemies  called  Him  "a  gluttonous 
man  and  a  wine-bibber."  He  associated 
freely  with  all  sorts  of  people,  so  that 
He  was  called,  in  bitter  criticism, 
"a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners." 

At  the  same  time,  being  in  the  world, 
He  was  not  of  it.  By  His  association 
with  the  rich  and  poor  alike,  and  His 
frank  entrance  into  all  sorts  of  society, 
He  asserted  that  worldliness  is  not 
necessarily  a  matter  of  circumstances 
or  of  occupation.  It  is  not  determined 

174 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

by  riches  or  by  poverty.  It  is  a  state 
of  mind,  a  spiritual  attitude,  a  certain 
emphasis  of  interest,  a  valuation  of 
things.  It  consists,  as  St.  John  said, 
in  loving  the  world.  When  an  excited 
person  announced  to  Emerson  that 
the  world  was  coming  to  an  end, 
Emerson  answered,  "I  can  get  along 
very  well  without  it."  The  worldly 
person  cannot  get  along  without  it. 
His  life  is  wholly  concerned  with  mate- 
rial and  temporary  matters.  He  is  so 
intent  on  social  pleasure,  so  depend- 
ent on  the  conveniences  of  the  world, 
so  occupied  with  the  amusements  of 
the  world,  that  he  loses  all  sense  of  the 
serious  aspects  of  living.  Or  he  is  so 
taken  up  with  the  plans  and  transac- 
tions of  his  business  or  his  profession, 
that  his  eyes  are  always  on  the  ground, 
and  he  loses  consciousness  of  a  vastly 
larger  side  of  life  which  is  represented 
by  ideals,  by  conscience,  by  the  .soul, 
and  by  the  presence  of  God. 

The  unworldly  person  does  not  sepa- 
rate himself  from  either  the  business 
or  the  pleasure  of  the  world,  but  he 
keeps  all  this  in  true  perspective, 

175 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

maintains  the  right  proportions  of  im- 
portance, and  puts  first  things  first. 
His  citizenship  is  here  where  he  lives 
and  votes,  but  it  is  in  heaven  also ; 
and  the  higher  citizenship  rules  the 
lower.  He  knows  that  the  world  passes 
away,  and  the  lust  thereof,  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  forever. 
That  is  his  purpose,  by  doing  the  divine 
will  to  live  the  abiding  life. 

Whoever  has  this  purpose,  to  whom 
the  will  of  God  is  the  supreme  and 
determining  consideration,  has  re- 
nounced the  world.  No  matter  where 
he  is,  nor  what  he  does  for  a  living, 
nor  how  he  spends  his  time,  whether 
he  is  rich  or  poor,  in  society  or  out  of  it, 
he  has  escaped  the  corruption  which  is 
in  the  world  through  lust.  For  lust 
means  the  desire  of  the  world,  the  satis- 
faction of  the  senses,  the  adequacy  of 
things  material.  It  means  the  love  of 
the  world.  They  are  unworldly  who 
set  their  affection  on  things  above,  not 
on  things  on  the  earth,  remembering 
that  that  which  is  seen  is  temporal,  but 
that  which  is  unseen  is  eternal. 

As  for  the  pleasures  of  the  world,  the 
176 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

attitude  of  religious  people  has  often 
been  curiously  illustrated  by  the  elder 
brother  in  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal 
Son.  "As  he  came  and  drew  nigh  to 
the  house,  he  heard  music  and  dancing, 
and  he  was  angry  and  would  not  go  in." 
It  is  a  mighty  serious  world,  they  say, 
with  a  great  amount  of  sin  in  it,  and 
much  sickness  and  pain  and  poverty; 
and  it  ends,  so  far  as  the  individual  is 
concerned,  in  certain  death ;  and  after 
death,  the  judgment.  Little  children 
laugh  and  play  because  they  are  igno- 
rant of  the  ills  which  beset  our  path ; 
but  they  who  have  come  to  years  of 
discretion  ought  to  know  better.  This 
perilous  planet,  on  whose  uncertain 
surface  we  live  our  brief  lives,  is  not  a 
place  for  levity.  Diversion,  as  the 
word  indicates,  is  that  which  diverts 
us  from  the  straight  course  of  sober 
thinking.  But  we  ought  not  to  allow 
anything  to  divert  us.  Under  con- 
demnation for  our  sins,  under  sentence 
of  death,  in  imminent  danger  of  hell, 
we  ought  to  consider  our  condition, 
we  ought  to  occupy  our  minds  with 
sober  thoughts,  and  to  conduct  our 
N  177 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

bodies  in  accord.  "If  any  be  merry, 
let  him  sing  psalms  !" 

This  feeling  is  so  strong  that  many 
regard  it  as  one  of  the  universal  and 
eternal  facts.  It  is  so  evidently  a  part 
of  our  own  history  that  it  seems  a 
part  of  general  history,  true  always 
and  everywhere.  But  this  is  not  the 
case.  Of  course,  religion  has  always 
been  the  opponent  of  vicious  pleasures. 
And  there  have  been  times,  as  for 
example  in  the  days  when  the  church 
was  contending  with  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, when  all  the  pleasures  of  the  world 
seemed  to  be  corrupt  and  corrupting. 
But  the  alliance  of  religion  with  the 
sobrieties  of  life  alone,  the  dissocia- 
tion of  the  church  from  the  natural 
joys  of  society,  the  clothing  of  the 
saints  in  black  and  white,  leaving  all 
the  pleasant  garments  for  the  sinners, 
—  this  is  a  modern  and  local  situation. 

For  instance,  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
not  only  was  the  church  the  patron 
of  the  theatre,  but  the  performance 
of  plays  proceeded  under  the  church 
roof.  The  Passion  Play  at  Oberam- 
mergau  is  a  survival  of  a  time  when 
178 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

religion  was  freely  given  dramatic  ex- 
pression. The  mediaeval  church  was 
the  mistress  of  all  the  pleasant  arts. 
Music  and  painting  were  developed 
under  her  approval.  The  fasts  and 
festivals  of  the  Christian  year,  with 
processions  through  the  streets,  and 
manifold  appeals  to  ear  and  eye,  con- 
tinually enriched  the  common  life. 
The  church  was  a  vital  part  of  society, 
entering  into  all  human  interests,  the 
condition  and  background  of  all  living, 
like  the  sky.  And  though,  like  the  sky, 
it  was  sometimes  dull  and  gray,  this 
was  not  for  long.  It  was  varied  and 
bright  and  shining,  and  gave  a  celestial 
color  to  the  days.  The  bells  were 
always  ringing  in  the  steeples,  and  the 
sound  was  a  cheerful  undertone  be- 
neath the  noises  of  the  street.  The 
mediaeval  church  may  be  criticised  for 
lack  of  moral  strictness.  It  was  too 
easily  contented.  But  it  had  the  virtue 
of  adding  immeasurably  to  the  interest 
and  to  the  happiness  of  life. 

Then,  in  Germany  and  England, 
and  so  in  this  country,  the  Protestant 
churches  reacted  from  this  situation. 

179 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

Bringing  a  new  moral  earnestness  into 
religion,  and  a  new  ideal  of  conduct, 
and  a  new  sensitiveness  of  conscience, 
they  took  the  emphasis  which  had  been 
put  on  adoration,  and  put  it  on  ad- 
monition. The  sermon  displaced  the 
service.  The  ritual  which,  it  must  be 
confessed,  had  ministered  unhappily 
to  superstition,  was  dismissed  in  dis- 
grace. The  church,  which  had  been 
filled  with  light  and  color  and  incense 
and  music,  was  now  designedly  con- 
structed to  be  as  cold  and  bare  as 
possible.  No  appeal  was  made  to  the 
senses.  Religion  was  brought  into  the 
pulpit  on  Sunday  morning  by  the 
preacher,  and  when  he  and  the  con- 
gregation departed  at  noon  on  that 
day,  they  took  it  along  with  them. 
Not  a  vestige  remained  behind.  To 
most  persons,  the  meeting-house  be- 
tween Sundays  was  the  most  dreary  of 
all  dull  places.  They  who  went  into 
it,  on  some  infrequent  errand,  shivered 
even  in  the  summer. 

This  change  from  church  to  meeting- 
house was  a  symbol  of  a  like  change  in 
the  relation  of  the  church  to  society. 
1 80 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

Religion  became  an  isolated  and  sombre 
fact.  The  church  had  been  open  all 
day  long,  and  people  old  and  young 
had  gone  freely  in  and  out.  The  new 
meeting-house  was  tight-shut,  except  at 
hours  of  service,  and  children  were 
forbidden  to  play  in  the  yard.  The 
function  of  religion  was  to  forbid.  It 
spoke  in  prohibition.  It  interfered  with 
the  pleasures,  even  the  innocent  pleas- 
ures, of  the  world.  Not  content  to  do  bat- 
tle with  the  ancient  and  elemental  sins, 
it  invented  new  ones,  which  it  declared 
to  be  as  bad  as  the  old.  To  go  to  the 
theatre  was  a  sin,  no  matter,  whether 
the  play  was  bad  or  good  ;  to  dance  was 
a  sin,  no  matter  under  what  conditions  ; 
a  new  definition  of  the  proper  observ- 
ance of  the  Lord's  Day  presented  to 
the  tender  conscience  the  possibility 
of  a  whole  array  of  new  transgressions. 
However  far  these  prohibitions  were 
wise  and  necessary,  the  effect  was  to 
make  the  church  appear  as  an  austere 
censor  of  the  common  life.  The  Puri- 
tan minister  who  recorded  in  his  diary 
that  his  sermon  at  a  wedding  was,  by 
divine  grace,  the  means  of  banishing 

181 


RELIGION  AND  THE   WORLD 

from  the  occasion  all  "carnal  joy," 
represented  the  situation  in  its  most 
unsympathetic  aspect.  As  he  came 
and  drew  nigh  to  the  house,  he  heard 
music  and  dancing,  and  though  he  did 
go  in,  —  thus  far  departing  from  the 
example  of  the  Elder  Brother,  —  all 
the  dancing  and  the  music  stopped 
when  he  appeared. 

The  minister's  text,  that  day,  could 
hardly  have  been  taken  from  the  ac- 
count of  the  presence  of  Jesus  at  the 
wedding  in  Cana.  At  that  feast,  Christ 
made  plain  for  all  time  that,  to  His 
mind,  the  renunciation  of  the  world 
demands  nothing  artificial  or  unnatural, 
signifies  no  inordinate  solemnity  of 
conduct,  makes  no  sombre  Christians, 
and  sets  no  ban  upon  the  pleasures  of 
the  world  other  than  that  which  is  set 
by  any  sense  of  the  difference  between 
right  and  wrong.  Being  bidden  to  the 
wedding  feast,  He  went,  and  brought 
His  disciples  with  Him ;  and  His 
contribution  to  the  festivity  increased 
rather  than  diminished  that  carnal  joy 
which  the  hard-featured  preacher  did 
his  best  to  banish. 
182 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

The  truth  is  that  the  pleasures  are  as 
essential  as  the  virtues,  and  are  vitally 
related  to  them.  It  is  necessary  not 
only  that  children  should  be  taught  to 
read  and  write,  but  that  they  should 
have  opportunity  to  play.  It  is  a 
satisfaction  of  instincts  which  are  a 
divine  part  of  human  nature.  The 
child  who  has  no  chance  to  play  is 
hurt  both  in  body  and  in  soul.  The 
Playground  Association  is  engaged  in 
the  service  of  religion.  Religious 
people  may  be  of  several  minds  as  to 
the  pleasures  of  the  world,  conven- 
tionally defined,  but  there  is  only  one 
right  mind  regarding  the  need  of  pleas- 
ure for  the  children.  The  effective 
bringing  forward  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  which  is  the  mission  of  the  church, 
begins  when  good  people  increase  the 
happiness  of  youth.  The  newer  parish 
houses  have  playgrounds  on  their  roofs  ; 
as  if,  with  uplifted  hands,  they  presented 
to  heaven  as  their  offering  and  sacrifice 
and  sacramental  gift,  this  sight  of  the 
glad  faces  of  playing  children. 

As  for  the  theatre,  the  matter  is 
quite  different.  The  theatre  appeals, 

183 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

indeed,  to  a  universal  instinct,  and  that 
fact  secures  it  against  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  good  citizens  to  abolish 
it.  There  it  is,  and  there  it  will 
remain,  and  grow.  But  the  theatre 
is  an  increasing  menace  to  common 
morals.  It  presents  a  false  idea  of 
life,  gradually  breaks  the  barriers  which 
guard  the  refinements  and  sanctities 
of  the  mind,  makes  a  jest  of  the 
family,  upon  whose  soundness  all  our 
social  institutions  rest,  and  develops 
that  lust  of  the  flesh  and  lust  of  the 
eyes  which  constitute  worldliness  as 
the  open  enemy  of  righteous  living. 
Such  is  the  condition  of  the  stage  that 
no  prudent  parents  may  permit  their 
children  to  see  plays  concerning  which 
they  have  not  carefully  informed  them- 
selves beforehand. 

At  the  same  time,  the  recent  history 
of  the  theatre  is  notable  for  the  appear- 
ance of  plays  which  one  can  hardly  see 
without  being  helped  and  bettered  by 
the  experience.  Not  only  are  the  great 
classic  dramas  kept  upon  the  stage, 
but  new  and  original  productions  show 
a  desire  on  the  part  of  writers  and 
184 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

managers  and  actors  to  restore  the 
theatre  to  its  true  place  in  the  life  of 
the  community.  The  dramatic  ser- 
mon of  "Everyman"  has  been  followed 
by  a  series,  short,  indeed,  but  signifi- 
cant, of  plays  of  high  purpose.  To 
neglect  the  performance  of  such  plays 
is  to  miss  a  religious  opportunity  to 
share  in  the  improvement  of  the 
theatre.  And  the  improvement  of  the 
theatre  means  a  lifting  of  the  ideals  of 
multitudes  of  people.  It  is  a  kind  of 
church  extension.  It  is  a  preaching 
of  religion  to  great  numbers  of  per- 
sons who  are  not  accustomed  to  hear 
it  preached  in  any  other  way. 

The  substantial  reformation  of  the 
theatre  is  assisted  not  by  those  who 
abuse  the  stage  without  seeing  it,  but 
by  those  who  go  to  the  theatre,  and 
whose  absence  when  the  play  is  bad  is 
a  disapproval  which  is  noticed  and  felt. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  betterment 
of  society.  Society  must  be  reformed 
from  within.  The  part  of  it  which 
needs  to  change  its  ways  will  pay  no 
heed  to  the  distant  voice  of  preachers, 
and  will  care  nothing  for  the  good 

185 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

opinion  of  the  good  people  who,  with 
all  their  excellences,  are  not  in  society. 
All  their  efforts  are  ineffective.  Such 
changes  as  should  be  made  in  the  cus- 
toms of  social  life  wait  for  the  precept, 
and,  still  more,  for  the  example,  of 
Christian  men  and  women  for  whom 
society  cares  much,  who  are  in  it 
by  virtue  of  birth,  or  wealth,  or  better 
reasons,  and  are  esteemed  by  it.  It  is 
the  people  who  amount  to  something 
socially  who  decide  how  society  shall 
keep  Sunday,  and  whether  it  shall 
gamble  or  not.  If  Christian  people  of 
social  position  were  to  stay  out  of 
society,  they  would  abandon  their  most 
important  mission.  Being  in  society, 
their  opportunity  opens  before  them 
daily. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  there  is 
a  passive  goodness  which  is  in  great 
peril  of  the  contagion  of  evil.  The 
passive  persons  catch  disease.  Not 
the  doctor,  not  the  nurse,  who  are 
made  in  a  great  degree  immune  by  the 
fact  of  their  active  and  aggressive 
attitude.  They  are  fighting  the  dis- 
ease, and  the  disease  is  in  retreat. 
186 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

The  passive,  nervous  persons,  who 
are  apprehensively  conscious  of  the 
contagion,  and  are  troubled  for  their 
own  safety,  catch  the  disease.  And 
the  same  holds  true  socially. 

They  are  in  no  great  peril  from  the 
pleasures  of  the  world  who  are  engaged 
in  a  plain,  definite  contention  with 
the  evil  of  the  world.  Theirs  is  an 
aggressive  goodness.  They  delight  in 
all  true  happiness  ;  they  are  merry  and 
joyful,  like  the  saints  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ;  they  are  cheerful  companions ; 
they  enjoy  the  world.  But  they  hate 
the  devil ;  and  all  their  acquaintances 
know  it.  When  temptation  comes, 
when  a  sudden  social  alternative  be- 
tween right  and  wrong  demands  reply, 
when  they  must  reveal  themselves, 
they  are  assisted  to  say  No  by  a  con- 
sciousness that  that  is  what  everybody 
expects  them  to  say. 

These  people  are  Christians  in  so- 
ciety. They  save  themselves  and  their 
neighbors.  They  keep  the  social  cur- 
rent strong  and  clear,  a  river  of  refresh- 
ment and  delight.  And  they  have  a 
thousand  times  more  influence  over 

187 

•^0  jT***""*'    t*s^<t    +*      &      1^p*a~f     ^f-       ^._-i3 

" 


RELIGION  AND  THE  WORLD 

prodigal  sons  than  any  of  the  elder 
brothers,  or  elder  sisters,  who,  when 
they  draw  nigh  the  house  and  hear 
music  and  dancing,  are  angry  and  will 
not  go  in. 


188 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

ji]HE  practice  of  religion  is  con- 
cerned not  only  with  the  world, 
but  with  the  flesh. 

The  doctrine  of  the  bad 
world  was  supported  and  confirmed  by 
a  doctrine  of  the  bad  flesh.  While  one 
of  these  doctrines,  however,  rested  on 
observation,  the  other  rested  on  phi- 
losophy. The  world  was  bad  in  fact, 
as  every  wise  observer  knew,  but  there 
were  some  redeeming  virtues  ;  it  was  not 
wholly  given  to  evil.  Indeed,  as  Chris- 
tian thought  about  the  matter  became 
more  clear,  it  was  perceived  that  the 
world  is  not  only  the  subject  of  redemp- 
tion, but  is  capable  of  being  redeemed. 
The  business  of  the  Christian  is  to 
make  the  bad  world  better. 

But  philosophy  is  a  much  more 
thoroughgoing  process  than  experience, 
more  positive  and  radical.  It  is  less 
likely  to  be  interrupted  by  inconsistent 

191 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

facts.  The  relation  of  religion  to  the 
flesh,  being  affected  by  a  system  of 
ancient  philosophy,  was  accordingly 
much  more  hostile  than  the  relation  of 
religion  to  the  world.  It  was  a  war  of 
extermination. 

The  philosophy  which  played  so 
vigorous  a  part  in  this  field  of  ethics 
came  out  of  the  East,  where  the  facts 
of  life  were  explained  by  a  doctrine  of 
dualism.  The  opposing  phenomena  of 
light  and  darkness,  and  of  good  and 
evil,  were  attributed  to  two  gods. 
The  universe  is  filled  with  the  warfare 
of  these  gods.  They  fight  about  us, 
and  within  us.  The  good  god  is  in- 
trenched in  the  soul,  the  bad  god  in  the 
body.  Matter,  of  which  the  body  is 
r  composed,  is  inherently  evil. 

This  law  of  sin  which  affects  us  as 
constantly  as  the  law  of  gravitation,  and 
is  quite  as  mysterious,  whence  is  it  de- 
rived ?  Where  does  it  get  its  malign  in- 
fluence over  us  ?  This  philosophy  an- 
swered, "From  the  body."  The  origin 
of  evil  is  in  the  substance  of  matter. 
Made  of  matter,  fashioned  out  of  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  the  body  is  the  resi- 
192 


RELIGION  AND  THE   FLESH 

dence  of  all  the  malign  forces.     That 
is  what  the  Oriental  teachers  said. 

This  theory  of  the  body  as  the  source 
of  all  evil  came  gradually  into  some 
such  place  in  the  common  thought  of 
those  days  as  is  now  taken  by  the  idea 
of  evolution.  It  was  in  the  air.  ,The 
church  opposed  it ;  it  was  condemned 
as  heresy.  Now  as  Manichseism,  now 
as  Gnosticism,  now  as  Neoplatonism, 
the  fathers  fought  it.  Their  efforts, 
however,  were  as  ineffective  as  an 
endeavor  to  keep  back  the  tide.  The 
heresy  became  orthodox.  The  counsels 
of  Christ  concerning  the  body,  where 
He  advised  the  plucking  out  of  offend- 
ing eyes  and  the  cutting  off  of  offend- 
ing hands,  seemed  to  confirm  the 
current  thought.  So  did  St.  Paul's 
words,  about  keeping  the  body  under, 
and  about  the  strife  between  the  spirit 
and  the  flesh.  These  teachings  seemed 
to  mean  what  the  Oriental  philosophy 
implied.  The  body  is  evil ;  all  sin 
comes  from  that  source;  and  the 
reasonable  thing  to  do  is  to  set  our 
attack  in  that  direction.  We  may 
expect  to  defeat  the  devil  by  weaken- 
o  193 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

ing  and  assailing  and  otherwise  master- 
ing the  fortress  in  which  he  is  in- 
trenched,—  the  body. 

The  story  of  the  renunciation  of  the 
flesh,  whereby  this  doctrine  of  the  evil 
of  the  body  was  applied  to  human  life, 
is  a  pitiful  chapter  in  the  history  of 
man.  It  is  a  record  of  starvation  and 
torture,  of  pain  of  body  and  distress 
of  soul.  Duties  are  forsaken,  hearts 
are  broken,  all  the  tender  ties  of  life 
are  severed,  in  this  fierce  passion  to 
attain  ideal  holiness  by  hurting  and 
maiming  and  gradually  destroying  the 
body.  St.  Simeon  Stylites  on  his  tall 
pillar, 

"Thrice  ten  years, 

Thrice  multiplied  by  superhuman  pangs, 
In  hungers  and  in  thirsts,  fevers  and  cold, 
In  coughs,  aches,  stitches,  ulcerous  throes  and 

cramps, 
A  sign  betwixt  the  meadow  and  the  cloud," 

bowing  there  in  prayer,  somebody 
counted  twelve  hundred  times,  and 
left  off  counting,  while  the  saint  went 
on  bowing,  —  what  a  pitiful  caricature 
he  is  of  the  religion  of  Christ,  but  what 
an  admirable  symbol  of  the  renuncia- 
194 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

tion  of  the  flesh  !  He  is  the  master  of 
all  the  agonizing  saints,  the  chief 
apostle  of  the  ascetic  life. 

The  spectacle  of  these  men,  making 
themselves  miserable  for  the  salvation 
of  their  souls,  becomes  not  only  pitiful 
but  tragic  when  we  perceive  that  they 
did  not,  after  all,  attain  their  pious 
purpose. 

The  sufferings  of  the  man  who  by 
virtue  of  his  painful  efforts  gains  his 
end,  makes  his  great  discovery,  wins 
his  hard  battles,  are  glorified  by  the 
result.  We  see  that  they  were  worth 
while.  But  most  of  these  men  failed. 
Withdrawing  from  the  world,  and 
thinking  thereby  to  escape  the  temp- 
tations of  the  world,  they  carried  the 
world's  temptations  with  them.  St. 
Jerome  confessed  that  the  solicitations 
of  the  flesh  assailed  him  in  the  soli- 
tude of  the  desert  with  more  fierceness 
than  in  the  pagan  society  which  he  had 
abandoned.  And  all  his  natural  infirm- 
ities of  temper  were  increased  by  his 
austerities. 

The  monks  of  the  deserts  of  Egypt 
and  of  the  mountains  of  Cappadocia 

195 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

came  out  to  take  their  part  in  the  delib- 
erations of  church  councils.  They 
came  from  their  days  and  nights  of 
prayer  and  fasting,  from  their  commun- 
ion with  God,  from  their  renunciation 
of  the  flesh ;  and  they  showed  how 
much  it  had  all  availed  for  the  clearing 
of  their  spiritual  sight  and  for  the 
betterment  of  their  souls.  It  had 
availed  nothing.  They  were  a  horde 
of  unclean,  ignorant,  and  superstitious 
fanatics,  worse  than  savages,  whose 
only  arguments  were  clubs  and  curses. 
And  on  its  milder  side,  in  quiet 
monasteries,  where  the  fierce  austerities 
of  the  desert  were  kept  under  wise 
restraint,  still  the  sermons  on  the  eight 
sins  of  the  monks  show  that  all  the 
common  sins  were  present  as  in  the 
outer  world.  Indeed,  asceticism  added 
a  new  sin,  on  which  all  the  monastic 
teachers  found  it  necessary  to  preach, 
—  the  sin  accedia,  which  means  indif- 
ference. The  renunciation  of  the  flesh 
produced  the  sin  of  indifference,  a 
sheer  weariness  of  spirit,  wherein  all 
life  and  all  religion  seemed  but  vanity 
and  dull  vexation. 
196 


RELIGION  AND  THE   FLESH 

This  failure  of  the  effort  to  subdue 
the  body  to  the  purposes  of  the  soul 
was  the  result  of  two  causes. 

The  renunciation  of  the  flesh  failed 
to  produce  the  desired  spiritual  results 
because  it  was  in  defiance  of  the  will 
of  God. 

There  is  a  revelation  of  God  in  the 
world  and  in  ourselves.  Our  posses- 
sion of  a  body  is  in  itself  a  revelation 
of  the  will  of  God.  Thus  He  has  made 
us,  because  thus  He  would  have  us  be. 
He  has  placed  us  in  a  world  of  sight 
and  sound,  of  taste  and  feeling,  and 
has  given  us  senses  to  enjoy  it  all, 
because  He  desires  us  to  enjoy  it. 
The  response  to  this  revelation  is  not 
asceticism.  That  is  a  contradiction 
of  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  world. 
The  grazing  monks,  who  ate  grass  like 
the  oxen,  declared  thereby  that  man 
at  his  best  ought  to  live  like  an  ox; 
but  they  reduced  their  whole  ideal  to 
absurdity.  We  are  not  to  be  ashamed, 
like  some  ancient  philosophers,  that 
we  dwell  in  bodies.  We  are  divinely 
made  that  way.  Our  part  is  to  keep 
our  nature  open  and  sensitive  and 

197 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

responsive  to  all  the  gracious  influ- 
ences of  physical  life. 

Also,  the  renunciation  of  the  flesh 
failed  to  attain  its  spiritual  purpose 
because  it  was  in  disregard  of  the 
nature  of  man. 

It  tried  to  effect  the  betterment  of 
man  by  negation,  by  putting  out  the 
evil.  The  parable  of  the  swept  and 
garnished  chamber  shows  the  working 
of  that  plan.  The  chamber  is  swept 
and  garnished,  clean  and  adorned ;  but 
it  is  empty,  and  its  emptiness  invites 
the  return  of  its  former  tenants,  and 
more  and  worse  than  before.  The  effect 
of  renunciation  is  to  empty  the  soul ;  but 
if  the  betterment  stops  there,  in  comes 
the  devil,  and  seven  other  devils  with 
him.  The  thing  to  do  is  to  bring  in  good 
guests.  That  is  essential.  The  true 
formula  of  effective  improvement  is, 
"The  expulsive  influence  of  the  good." 

The  people  who  devoted  themselves 
to  the  renunciation  of  the  flesh  found 
that  they  thought  more  about  the  flesh 
than  about  anything  else.  They  could 
not  help  it.  They  aggravated  all  that 
side  of  life.  The  true  way  to  renounce 
198 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

the  flesh  is  to  emphasize  the  spirit. 
The  law  of  sin  which  we  find  in  our 
members  is  escaped  by  obeying,  more 
and  more  diligently,  the  law  of  God. 

The  right  renunciation  of  the  flesh  is 
assisted  by  remembering  certain  truths 
about  our  bodies.  The  body  is  the 
dwelling  of  the  spirit.  It  is  to  be 
kept  fit  for  the  soul  to  live  in.  We 
have  got  to  live  in  our  bodies  :  that 
is  the  unescapable  fact.  If  they  are 
enfeebled  by  indolence,  if  they  are 
injured  by  neglect,  if  they  are  hurt 
by  appetite,  if  they  are  poisoned  by 
sin,  we  have  got  to  live  in  them,  just 
as  we  have  made  them.  We  are  build- 
ing day  by  day  the  house  of  the  body, 
and  are  daily  determining  what  sort 
of  house  it  is,  and  are  occupying  it 
under  advantages  or  disadvantages 
which  we  ourselves  have  in  great 
measure  determined. 

There  is  still  an  idea  prevalent  among 
youth  that  the  laws  of  religion  and  of 
society  concerning  sins  of  the  flesh  are 
only  the  arbitrary  and  unreasonable 
regulations  of  elderly  and  cold-blooded 
persons,  and  that  the  only  serious 

199 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

consequence  of  breaking  them  is  a  loss 
of  the  esteem  of  those  whose  esteem  is 
not  of  any  great  value.  There  are 
penalties  attached  to  them,  but  the 
cleverness  of  youth  may  conceal  the 
offences  and  escape  the  consequences. 
Science,  however,  has  come  now  to 
reenforce  the  warnings  of  religion  and 
of  society.  A  study  of  the  facts  of 
mind  and  body  shows  that  the  punish- 
ment of  the  sins  of  the  flesh  waits  for 
no  discovery  of  the  offender,  and  for 
no  verdict  ecclesiastical  or  social.  It 
proceeds  with  the  unerring  and  im- 
partial promptness  of  fire.  Lust  and 
appetite  poison  body  and  soul,  as  fire 
burns.  No  sin  of  the  flesh  leaves  the 
transgressor  where  he  was  before ;  he 
has  injured  himself. 

The  worship  of  the  old  gods,  Bacchus 
and  Venus,  is  still  maintained.  If 
anybody  desires  to  ascertain  how  it 
felt  in  the  old  days  to  be  persecuted 
by  the  votaries  of  pagan  religions,  he 
has  only  to  attack  the  priests  and 
pontiffs  of  these  shrines  in  his  own 
town.  He  will  find  out,  speedily  and 
sharply.  The  gods  are  worshipped 
200 


RELIGION  AND  THE   FLESH 

with  human  sacrifices.  They  put  their 
victims  to  slow  torture.  And,  as  in  the 
former  times,  they  disguise  their  pur- 
poses by  the  glamour  of  manifold  attrac- 
tions. The  supply  of  victims  is  a 
profitable  business.  That  is  why  an 
interference  with  it  is  so  tragically 
resented. 

The  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  is  to  be  kept  sacred  like  a 
shrine.  We  guard  a  holy  fire,  upon  an 
altar  consecrated  to  the  God  of  health 
and  purity.  The  body  is  our  living 
sacrifice  which  we  are  to  give  to  God, 
sound,  holy,  and  as  He  made  it.  The 
body  is  our  means  for  accomplishing  the 
work  >of  the  world.  It  is  to  be  kept 
fit  for  use. 

It  is  no  sin  to  be  comfortable,  but 
if  we  get  to  depend  on  comforts  so  that 
we  cannot  be  comfortable  without 
them,  we  are  venturing  into  the  per- 
ilous neighborhood  of  sin.  It  is  no 
sin  to  consider  what  we  eat,  and  what 
we  drink,  and  what  we  wear.  Christ's 
admonition  refers  to  nervous  care  about 
these  things.  But  to  be  chiefly  inter- 
ested in  clothes  and  food,  to  be  more 

20 1 


RELIGION  _AND  THE  FLESH 

concerned  about  these  provisions  for 
the  body  than  about  the  difference 
between  right  and  wrong,  to  be  more 
attentive  to  fashion  than  to  conscience, 
to  think  with  lively  satisfaction  of  our 
pleasant  meals,  and  not  to  think  at 
all  of  that  which  nourishes  the  soul  — 
this  is  to  have  what  St.  Paul  calls  a 
"carnal  mind."  And  the  carnal  mind, 
he  says,  is  enmity  with  God.  It  is 
opposed  to  God's  supreme  purposes  for 
our  life.  The  result  of  living  in  accord- 
ance with  it  is  that  human  beings  live 
like  animals. 

The  carnal  mind  is  not  of  necessity  a 
vicious  mind,  though  it  opens  us  to 
temptation  on  that  side.  It  is  a  mind 
which  is  satisfied  with  the  gratifica- 
tion of  the  flesh.  It  is  contented  with 
that  which  appeals  to  the  senses.  The 
criticism  of  the  wise  upon  it  is  not  only 
that  it  dwells  in  the  lower  levels  of  life, 
next  to  the  animals,  but  that  it  rests 
the  great  treasure  of  happiness  upon 
insecure  foundations.  The  pleasures  of 
the  flesh  depend  on  the  unstable  senses, 
any  one  of  which  may  at  any  moment 
be  transformed  into  a  source  of  pain. 

202 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

What  we  desire  is  such  a  relation  to 
the  body  that  our  happiness,  our  expec- 
tation, and  our  true  life  are  independent 
of  it.  Thus  far,  we  would  renounce  it. 
Thus  far,  we  would  cast  it  from  us. 
The  true  renunciation  of  the  body  is 
the  exaltation  of  the  spirit.  When  St. 
Paul  said,  "I  keep  under  my  body," 
he  expressed  only  a  half  of  the  truth. 
He  kept  his  body  under  by  keeping  up 
his  soul.  He  delighted  in  the  law  of 
God.  Meditating  in  it  day  and  night, 
there  was  no  place  in  his  mind  for 
petty  or  unworthy  thoughts.  Busy 
continually  with  the  endeavor  to  attain 
his  high  ideals,  to  serve  his  generation, 
to  do  the  constant  deeds  of  ministry 
which  he  desired  to  do,  he  had  no  time 
for  any  of  the  baser  part  of  life. 

This  is  the  true  prescription  for  keep- 
ing the  right  relation  between  the  body 
and  the  soul.  The  most  wholesome 
exercise  in  which  one  can  engage  is 
social  service.  Sir  Philip  Sidney's  fine 
counsel,  "Whenever  you  hear  of  a 
good  war,  go  to  it,"  may  well  be  applied 
to  the  present  contention  against  the 
public  enemies  who  are  using  the  senses 

203 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

for  their  own  gain.  That  which  makes 
their  fortune  destroys  the  happiness  of 
those  by  whom  they  make  it.  It  is 
their  deliberate  business  to  stimulate 
the  appetites  which  result  in  immo- 
rality and  intoxication.  They  intend 
not  only  to  minister  to  these  elemental 
instincts,  but  to  increase  them  for  the 
increase  of  their  own  gain.  The  fact 
that  the  process  means  shame  and 
torture  of  the  bodies  and  souls  of  their 
neighbors  does  not  deter  them.  They 
are  organized  to  make  money  out  of 
the  sins  of  the  flesh. 

Against  this  sort  of  organization 
must  be  opposed  the  strength  of  coun- 
ter-organization. No  amount  of  senti- 
ment, of  pity,  or  of  indignation  will 
of  itself  avail  anything.  It  is  like 
opposing  an  invading  army  with  peti- 
tions and  entreaties  and  menaces  from 
the  side  of  the  road.  The  only  effec- 
tive force  against  generalship  is  general- 
ship. Combination  must  be  fought 
with  combination.  The  hope  against 
these  devourers  of  men  and  women 
and  children  is  in  the  societies  which 
are  arraying  good  people  against  them. 
204 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

Every  citizen  who  would  do  more  than 
bemoan  the  sins  of  the  flesh  must  give 
his  time  or  his  money  to  this  kind  of 
effort.  On  one  side  is  the  purpose  to 
make  money,  no  matter  what  it  costs  in 
human  misery ;  on  the  other  side  is  a 
Christian  determination  that  all  men 
and  all  women,  however  poor,  shall 
have  the  right  and  the  opportunity  to 
possess  their  bodies  in  soberness  and 
chastity. 

The  providing  of  public  recreation, 
the  building  of  baths,  the  opening  of 
libraries  and  picture-galleries  and  con- 
servatories, the  free  privilege  of  music, 
the  widening  of  open  spaces,  the  direc- 
tion of  games  and  exercise,  —  all  this 
is  a  contribution  to  the  campaign 
against  the  vices  which  are  assisted 
by  sluggishness  of  body  and  lack  of 
better  interest.  The  problem  of  rent, 
the  problem  of  hours,  the  problem  of 
wages,  are  all  concerned  in  this  matter, 
and  call  for  the  attention  of  religion. 
The  connection  between  drunkenness 
and  the  conditions  of  work  in  mills, 
and  between  prostitution  and  the 
wages  of  women,  is  such  as  to 

205 


RELIGION  AND  THE  FLESH 

make  it  idle  and  impertinent  for  the 
men  who  own  these  industries  to  give 
liberally  to  societies  which  deal  with 
these  evils,  while  at  the  same  time  they 
maintain  the  situation  out  of  which 
the  evils  come.  It  is  like  endowing 
hospitals  for  the  care  of  typhoid  fever 
patients,  and  paying  no  attention  to 
the  supply  of  water.  The  initial  con- 
sideration in  all  Christian  business  is 
the  value  of  human  life  and  character. 
As  for  our  own  selves,  all  care  of  the 
body,  like  all  enrichment  of  the  mind, 
is  our  approach  to  that  divine  ideal 
which  is  declared  in  human  nature. 
We  are,  indeed,  to  renounce  whatever 
dulls  our  senses,  masters  our  strength, 
enfeebles  our  frame,  and  makes  us 
unresponsive  to  the  manifold  appeals 
of  the  world  about  us.  But  we  are  to 
make  that  renunciation  complete  by 
the  consecration  of  the  body,  sound 
and  strong,  to  the  supreme  purposes  of 
the  soul.  Whatsoever  things  are  true, 
and  fine,  and  lovely,  and  uplifting, 
these  are  to  engage  our  senses ;  to 
these  we  are  to  give  our  thoughts. 

206 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

HE  attainment  of  character, 
which  is  the  supreme  require 
ment  of  religion,  implies  not 
only  a  renunciation  of  the 
world  and  of  the  flesh,  but  also  of  the 
devil.  Not  the  devil  of  theology,  who 
is  the  embodiment  of  the  mystery  of 
evil ;  but  the  devil  of  ethics,  who  is  a 
convenient  symbol  of  the  wickedness 
of  the  world. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  the  Pas- 
toral Epistles  very  earnest  warnings 
against  the  devil  are  addressed  to 
bishops. 

The  warnings  stand  at  the  end  of  a 
list  of 'virtues  and  vices  which  are  par- 
ticularly commended  to  the  attention 
of  bishops.  A  bishop  must  be  vigilant, 
sober,  and  of  good  behavior ;  he  must 
be  of  a  temperate  habit  and  of  a  peace- 
able disposition,  a  patient  person,  of  a 
grave  demeanor.  Twice  he  is  warned 
p  209 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

against  the  love  of  money :  he  must 
not  be  greedy  of  filthy  lucre,  he  must 
not  be  covetous.  Twice  he  is  warned 
against  the  temptations  of  a  hasty 
temper;  he  must  be  no  striker  and  no 
brawler.  These  admonitions  against 
violence  remind  us  of  the  turbulent 
times  in  which  the  words  were  written, 
when  there  was  persecution  without  and 
controversy  within,  and  earnest  men 
were  inclined  to  enforce  their  argu- 
ments by  using  the  minor  premiss  of 
the  fist  and  the  major  premiss  of  the 
club.  St.  Paul  never  forgot  how  he 
had  himself  assisted  in  the  stoning  of 
Stephen. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the 
bishops  who  are  here  addressed  held 
such  an  office  as  the  name  suggests  to 
us.  This,  however,  is  of  no  immediate 
concern.  They  who  are  thus  had  in 
mind  are  the  leading  Christians  of  the 
place.  They  are  esteemed  by  their 
brethren  as  good  examples.  They  are 
the  best  people,  the  most  earnest, 
the  most  devout,  the  most  interested 
in  the  affairs  of  the  church. 

These  are  the  people  who  are  warned 
210 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

with  solemn  repetition  to  be  on  their 
guard  against  the  devil. 

The  fact  suggests  a  distinction  be- 
tween the  temptations  which  may  be 
labelled  "of  the  devil"  and  those 
which  may  be  labelled  "of  the  world" 
and  "of  the  flesh."  The  temptations 
of  the  world  lead  to  offences  which 
may  be  described  as  the  sins  of  society. 
The  temptations  of  the  flesh  lead  to  the 
sins  of  the  body.  But  the  temptations 
of  the  devil  lead  to  what  may  be  called 
the  sins  of  the  spirit.  One  may  be 
innocent  of  the  transgressions  of  the 
world  and  of  the  flesh,  and  yet  be  under 
the  dominion  of  the  devil.  Such  a 
person  is  apt  to  be  very  religious. 
Such  a  sin  is  one  of  the  maladies  which 
attack  the  spiritual  life. 

Thus  the  eminently  religious  persons 
by  whom  Jesus  was  rejected  and  per- 
secuted and  at  last  crucified  were  not 
addicted  to  the  sins  of  the  world.  They 
kept  themselves  apart  from  the  world. 
Some  of  the  members  of  their  guild 
were  called  "bleeding  Pharisees,"  be- 
cause they  went  about  with  eyes  blind- 
folded, that  they  might  not  even  see  the 

211 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

world,  and  were  always  bruising  them- 
selves on  sharp  corners,  in  consequence. 
And  all  of  them  were  grave  and  serious 
churchmen,  whom  nobody  suspected 
of  frivolity.  Neither  were  they  ad- 
dicted to  the  sins  of  the  flesh.  They 
fasted  twice  in  the  week,  and  kept  the 
moral  law  with  anxious  care.  The 
trouble  with  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
was  that  they  committed  the  sins  which 
are  connected  with  the  devil. 

It  is  characteristic  of  these  sins  that 
they  are  very  respectable.  The  sinner 
.-"'  is  not  made  obnoxious  to  the  police. 
One  may  commit  such  offences  every 
day,  like  the  Pharisees,  and  yet  keep 
-  the  esteem  of  the  community.  They 
are  sins  of  motive :  so  that  while  we 
seem  to  be  living  aright  because  of 
conscience,  and  the  fear  and  love  of 
God,  we  are  really  living  aright  because 
that  is  the  conventional,  or  convenient, 
or  prudent  thing  to  do.  Or  they  are 
sins  of  thought :  so  that  while  our 
actions  and  words  are  excellent,  our 
hearts  behind  them  are  rilled  with  envy, 
hatred,  malice,  and  all  uncharitableness. 
Thus  Jesus  called  the  Pharisees  hypo- 

212 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

crites.  "Ye  outwardly  appear  right- 
eous unto  men,"  He  said,  "but  within 
ye  are  full  of  hypocrisy  and  iniquity." 

The  arraignment  of  the  Pharisees, 
which  astonished  the  listening  people, 
who  held  them  in  high  respect,  probably 
astonished  the  Pharisees  themselves. 
For  one  of  the  snares  of  the  devil  is 
to  persuade  men  that  respectability  is 
righteousness.  And  another  snare  of 
the  devil  is  to  persuade  men  that  vices 
are  virtues. 

It  is  a  doctrine  of  the  devil  that 
respectability  is  equivalent  to  right- 
eousness. 

The  doctrine  is  one  of  easy  and  popu- 
lar acceptance.  The  young  man  in  the 
Gospel  who  said  of  the  commandments, 
"All  these  have  I  kept  from  my  youth 
up,"  was  under  the  influence  of  it. 
His  satisfaction  was  suggested  by  the 
devil.  The  precise  iniquity  which  kept 
back  the  Pharisees  from  a  knowledge 
of  the  truth  concerning  Jesus  and  con- 
cerning themselves,  and  made  them  the 
enemies  of  God  when  they  thought  they 
were  His  friends,  was  the  conviction 
that  they  were  good  enough  already. 

213 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

The  New  Testament  teaches  the 
possibility  of  the  damnation  of  the 
respectable.  The  rich  man  in  the  para- 
ble, who  awoke  in  the  other  world  in 
torment,  was  a  most  respectable  citizen. 
He  lived  in  one  of  the  handsomest 
houses  of  the  town,  and  his  gracious 
hospitality  enriched  the  social  life  of 
the  neighborhood.  The  priest  and  the 
Levite  who  saw  a  wounded  man  on  the 
Jericho  road,  and  prudently  passed  by 
on  the  other  side,  were  on  their  way 
to  church.  On  they  went,  without  a 
qualm  of  conscience,  and  presently,  in 
the  devotions  of  the  service,  they 
thanked  God  for  a  safe  journey.  The 
Pharisee  who  said,  "Lord,  I  thank  thee 
that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are,"  told 
the  truth.  He  was  not  as  many  other 
men.  He  was  no  extortioner;  he  was 
no  adulterer.  He  attended  divine  ser- 
vice with  unfailing  regularity  and  made 
his  proper  contribution  to  the  support 
of  the  institutions  of  religion. 

There  is  a  long  procession  of  these 

people    through    the    chapters    of    the 

Gospels,  a  long  and  pious  procession. 

They  pass  by  with  hands  folded,  pray- 

214 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

ing  or  singing  as  they  go,  straight  in 
the  direction  of  the  bottomless  pit. 
They  are  all  respectable.  They  deceive 
us.  But  when  they  come  to  God,  after 
their  estimable  lives,  and  say,  "Lord, 
Lord,  we  have  preached  in  Thy  name, 
and  in  Thy  name  have  cast  out  devils, 
and  done  wonderful  works ;  we  come 
bringing  our  good  record  with  us,"  the 
Lord  looks  at  them,  and  says  :  "I 
never  knew  you.  I  never  heard  a 
prayer  you  said,  —  did  you  pray  to 
Me  ?  I  never  heard  a  sermon  which 
you  preached,  —  did  you  preach  for 
Me  ?"  No,  they  preached  and  prayed 
and  did  their  excellent  works  of  charity 
and  public  service  for  their  own  satis- 
faction. They  had  no  religion ;  they 
had  respectability  in  the  place  of  it. 

This  is  described  in  the  third  person 
and  illustrated  outof  the  ancient  pages  of 
the  Bible,  but  we  know  that  it  touches 
all  of  us.  It  concerns  a  present  and 
impending  peril.  It  reveals  a  situa- 
tion such  as  made  even  St.  Paul  say, 
"Lest  by  any  means,  when  I  have 
preached  to  others,  I  myself  should 
be  a  castaway." 

215 


RELIGION  AND  THE   DEVIL 

The  trouble  with  mere  respectability 
is  that  it  is  negative,  conventional, 
formal ;  without  serious  meaning,  with- 
out worthy  purpose,  without  warmth 
or  life.  It  is  like  a  painted  post.  Even 
a  crooked  tree  which  is  alive  has  some 
sort  of  soul,  responds  however  feebly 
to  the  influences  of  the  earth  and  air, 
and  may  grow.  There  is  no  growth 
in  a  post. 

The  difference  between  respectability 
and  religion  is  like  the  difference  be- 
tween a  painted  fire  and  a  fire.  The 
fire  in  the  picture  may  be  admirably 
laid,  and  may  blaze  over  a  hearth 
which  is  immaculately  swept,  but  the 
real  fire,  —  for  all  its  ashes  and  dis- 
order, is  warm,  it  flashes  and  flames, 
it  burns  high  and  low,  it  is  alive. 
Christ  saw  some  such  difference  be- 
tween Pharisees,  correct  and  unrespon- 
sive, and  sinners,  who,  with  all  their 
defects,  had  some  understanding  of 
their  own  shortcomings,  knew  that 
they  were  far  from  good,  and  honestly 
desired  to  be  better.  They  are  pre- 
sented side  by  side  in  the  feast  in 
Simon's  house,  where  the  self-righteous 
216 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

host  watches  the  woman  who  washes 
the  feet  of  Jesus  with  her  tears  and 
wipes  them  with  her  hair.  The  sins 
of  the  sinners  were  such  as  had  to  do 
with  the  world  and  with  the  flesh  ;  the 
sins  of  the  Pharisees  were  of  the  spirit, 
the  results  of  falling  into  the  snares  of 
the  devil. 

Not  only  does  the  devil  persuade  us 
that  respectability  is  righteousness  and 
religion,  he  also  assures  us  that  vices 
are  virtues. 

It  is  in  this  occupation  that  he  is 
busying  himself  when  he  appears  as  an 
angel  of  light.  He  thus  appeals  to 
good  people,  who  have  a  sincere  desire 
for  virtue,  and  who  would  not  do  a 
wrong  thing  if  they  knew  it.  He  makes 
the  wrong  look  right. 

This  was  the  procedure  of  the  three 
temptations  in  which  Jesus  summed 
up  the  alternatives  which  met  Him  at 
the  beginning  of  His  ministry.  If  He 
can  turn  stones  into  bread,  why  not  ? 
He  is  hungry ;  may  He  not  provide 
Himself  with  food  ?  If  the  angels  will 
uphold  Him  with  their  wings,  why  not 
leap  from  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple  ? 

217 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

Even  the  third  and  plainest  tempta- 
tion, to  kneel  down  and  do  a  moment's 
homage  to  the  devil,  is  confused  by  the 
good  results  which  are  to  follow :  He 
may  thus  free  the  world  from  the 
bondage  of  sin  and  pain.  It  is  the  old 
temptation  to  do  a  little  reasonable 
evil  that  great  benefit  may  come  there- 
by. We  need  to  stop  and  consider, 
before  we  perceive  that  these  tempta- 
tions —  at  least  the  first  and  second 
—  are  temptations  at  all.  They  look 
like  profitable  suggestions. 

One  ancient  vice  which  is  thus  dis- 
guised to  appear  like  virtue  is  the  sin 
of  pride. 

The  good  side  of  pride  is  a  high 
appreciation  of  our  own  privileges. 
We  rejoice  that,  in  the  distribution  of 
the  good  things  of  this  life,  so  many 
have  fallen  to  our  share.  We  honestly 
appreciate  our  own  excellent  qualities,' 
our  special  gifts,  abilities,  and  posses- 
sions. Pride,  thus  far,  is  not  inconsis- 
tent with  humility.  That  quiet  virtue 
gets  its  name  from  humus,  the  ground, 
and  does  not  necessarily  imply  that 
we  are  to  kneel  upon  the  ground;  the 
218 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

humble  man  may  stand  erect  upon  it, 
basing  himself  upon  the  actual  facts. 
To  conceal  them,  and  thus  appear 
worse  than  we  really  are,  may  be  no 
better  than  an  inverted  hypocrisy. 

Pride  becomes  a  vice  when  they  who 
have  possessions  use  them  wholly  for 
their  own  satisfaction,  and  draw  a  line 
of  separation  between  themselves  and 
their  less  privileged  neighbors.  The 
divine  purpose  of  possessions  is  to 
share  them.  They  are  meant  to  min- 
ister not  to  self-conceit,  but  to  social 
service.  They  are  the  measure  of  social 
opportunity.  Thus,  Jesus  was  con- 
tending with  the  devil  when  He  opposed 
the  religious  and  racial  antagonism  of 
His  countrymen  towards  their  neigh- 
bors. When  He  praised  the  Samaritan, 
and  crowned  the  humility  of  the  publi- 
can with  His  approval,  He  chose  these 
alien  heroes  for  His  parables  because 
He  expressed  thereby  His  mind  con- 
cerning current  prejudice.  When,  on 
His  way  to  Jerusalem,  He  dined  at 
Jericho  with  the  publican  Zacchaeus, 
He  shocked  profoundly  the  social  sense 
of  the  community,  but  this  He  did 

219 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

according  to  His  purpose,  breaking 
down  those  ugly  barriers,  even  with 
violence.  He  saw  plainly  that  the 
condemnation  of  men  by  classes  is  a 
stoppage  of  all  social  progress.  It  is 
false,  for  men  cannot  thus  be  judged 
by  wholesale ;  and  it  affects  society, 
as  some  wise  man  has  said,  like  putting 
all  the  dough  in  one  pan  and  the  yeast 
in  another.  It  is  the  combination  of 
the  knowledge,  of  the  interests,  of  the 
needs,  of  the  spirit,  of  the  rich  and  poor, 
the  cultivated  and  the  uncultivated, 
the  progressives  and  the  conservatives, 
which  stimulates  and  improves  society. 

Another  old  and  ugly  vice  which  is 
attired  in  the  pleasant  garments  of 
virtue,  with  a  shining  halo  round  its 
head,  is  the  sin  of  hating  our  neighbors 
for  the  love  of  God. 

The  consecration  of  hatred  to  the 
service  of  religion  appears  with  all 
frankness  in  the  Old  Testament.  "Do 
not  I  hate  them,  O  Lord,  that  hate 
thee  ?"  cries  a  psalmist.  And  he  an- 
swers his  own  question,  saying,  "I 
hate  them  with  a  perfect  hatred." 
Then  he  adds,  in  all  honesty  and 
220 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

confidence,  "Search  me,  O  God,  and 
know  my  heart ;  try  me,  and  know  my 
thoughts ;  and  see  if  there  be  any 
wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in 
the  way  everlasting."  The  idea  that 
it  is  wicked  to  hate  even  the  Lord's 
enemies  with  a  perfect  hatred  has  no 
place  whatsoever  in  his  mind. 

Then  came  Jesus,  with  His  contra- 
diction of  all  that,  saying,  "Love  your 
enemies."  But  the  old  vice  kept  its 
honored  place  among  the  virtues.  It 
early  entered  into  Christian  contro- 
versy. It  set  Christians  to  persecute 
Christians.  It  was  in  the  camp 
throughout  the  "wars  of  religion." 
It  was  responsible  for  the  Inquisition 
and  all  its  fiendish  horrors.  It  invented 
those  implements  of  torture  which 
one  finds  hanging  idle  and  rusty  on 
the  walls  of  old  castles,  marked  with  the 
sign  of  the  cross  by  the  finger  of  the 
devil. 

Only  within  modern  times  has  the 
sin  of  hating  our  enemies  for  the  love 
of  God  been  found  out.  It  was  ac- 
counted an  evidence  of  earnestness. 
It  was  a  mark  of  conviction.  Who- 

221 


RELIGION  AND  THE  DEVIL 

ever  was  disposed  to  recognize  the  ever- 
lasting fact  of  difference,  and  to  consent 
to  its  presence  in  the  community,  was 
held  to  be  a  lukewarm  Christian,  and 
to  belong  of  right  to  that  parish  of 
Laodicea  which  is  condemned  in  the 
Revelation.  It  was  considered  a  con- 
scientious Christian  duty  to  stone  our 
enemy  with  hard  words,  and  to  poison 
him  with  bitter  sentences.  We  thought 
it  was  right;  that  is  the  curious  thing 
about  it.  The  deception  was  complete. 
We  were  taken  so  cleverly  in  the  devil's 
snare  that  we  did  not  know  it. 

We  read  in  the  Gospels,  with  all 
plainness,  that  Christ  was  put  to  death 
not  by  common  sinners,  but  by  men  of 
religion,  by  churchmen ;  and  that  the 
sole  occasion  was  a  difference  of  church- 
manship.  They  were  good  churchmen  ; 
He  was  not,  they  said.  They  crucified 
Him  that  they  might  protect  thereby 
the  ancient  customs  which  He  had 
set  at  naught,  and  save  the  church. 
Nevertheless,  we  disregarded  the  great 
lesson.  We  went  on  in  their  spirit, 
blind  to  the  fact  that  we  were  following 
in  their  steps.  In  a  thousand  contro- 

222 


RELIGION  AND  THE  _  DEVIL 

versies,  we  crucified  the  Lord  afresh, 
and  put  Him  to  an  open  shame. 

We  see  that  now,  as  we  turn  the 
unreadable  pages  of  the  eager  debates. 
We  see  that  hatred  and  uncharitable- 
ness,  and  the  spirit  of  strife,  and  the 
willingness  to  believe  evil,  and  all 
unbrotherliness  are  of  the  devil,  and 
were  by  him  interjected  into  Christian 
discussion  when  he  persuaded  men 
that  vice  is  virtuous. 

To  renounce  the  devil  is  to  turn  our 
backs  upon  those  sins  which  have  their 
source  not  in  the  world,  nor  in  the  flesh, 
but  in  the  spirit.  It  is  to  keep  our 
hearts  with  diligence,  to  control  not 
our  words  and  actions  only,  but  our 
thoughts,  to  live  as  in  His  presence 
who  sees  in  secret.  It  is  to  change  a 
formal  and  indifferent  respectability 
into  a  living  religion.  It  is  to  keep  our 
virtues  from  degenerating  into  vices. 


223 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF 
RELIGION 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF 
RELIGION 


HE  statement  of  the  require- 
ment of  religion  in  terms  of 
aspiration,  of  motive,  and  of 
service,  and  the  carrying  of 
the  matter  into  detail  as  regards  the 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  tend  to 
discourage  those  who  perceive  that 
these  things  are  true,  but  doubt  their 
ability  to  fulfil  them.  This  state  of 
mind  is  met  in  the  last  paragraphs  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  con- 
cerned with  the  ideal  life.  In  the 
course  of  it,  Christ  criticises  the  current 
standards  of  religion.  He  says  that 
in  order  to  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  these  standards  must  be 
exceeded.  He  points  to  the  men  who 
are  conspicuous  for  their  religious  zeal, 
the  eminent  churchmen  of  His  time, 
and  tells  His  disciples  that  theirs  is  a 
misleading  example.  You  must  be 

227 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

better  than  that,  He  says.  He  com- 
pares the  common  righteousness  — 
superficial,  material,  mechanical,  and 
easy --with  the  true  righteousness, 
spiritual  and  sincere,  and  including  the 
inmost  thoughts  and  motives. 

Such  a  statement  calls  out  three 
quite  different  kinds  of  response. 

Some  of  the  hearers  begin  at  once 
to  think  about  their  neighbors.  "That 
is  pretty  hard,"  they  say,  "on  So-and- 
So  who  pretends  to  be  so  pious.  I  hope 
that  Ephraim  took  to  heart  what  the 
preacher  said  about  swearing;  and 
that  Manassah,  with  his  bad  temper, 
heeded  that  mighty  reproof  of  those 
who  are  angry  with  their  brethren 
without  a  cause ;  and  that  Levi  will 
wash  his  face  when  he  fasts,  and  not 
look  so  much  more  solemn  than  he 
really  is  ;  and  that  Reuben,  whose  name 
is  always  so  conspicuous  on  subscrip- 
tion lists,  noticed  what  was  said  about 
ostentatious  giving." 

To  these   critics  who   have  enjoyed 

the    sermon     because    it     seemed    so 

admirably  adapted  to  their  neighbors 

Christ  says,   "Judge    not,"   and  illus- 

228 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

trates  and  enforces  the  saying  with  the 
grave  humor  of  the  parable  of  the  mote 
and  the  beam.  "You  will  be  ready," 
He  says,  "to  attend  to  these  bits  of 
dust  in  your  brother's  eye,  when  you 
have  improved  your  sight  by  taking 
out  the  stick  of  wood  which  is  in  your 
own  eye." 

A  second  class  of  hearers  begin  at 
once  to  think  of  nothing  at  all.  They 
agree  that  the  sermon  was  excellent. 
They  have  no  criticism  of  it.  They 
praise  it  for  its  interest  and  eloquence. 
But  it  makes  no  difference.  They  are 
in  no  way  affected  by  that  which  they 
have  heard.  They  do  not  ask,  like  the 
hearers  of  John  the  Baptist  by  the 
Jordan,  and  the  hearers  of  Peter  in 
Jerusalem,  "What  shall  we  do?"  It 
does  not  occur  to  them  to  do  anything. 
They  look  about  at  the  clouds  and  the 
trees,  and  at  their  companions,  noting 
who  is  present  and  who  is  absent. 
They  consult  the  time,  and  go  home 
to  dinner. 

To  hearers  such  as  these,  Christ 
says,  "Why  call  ye  me  Lord,  Lord, 
and  do  not  the  things  which  I  say  ?" 

229 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

But  there  is  a  third  company  of 
hearers.  They  are  thinking  not  of 
their  neighbors,  and  not  of  things  in 
general,  but  of  themselves.  In  the 
presence  of  such  an  ideal  as  has  been 
uplifted  in  the  sermon,  they  say,  "It 
is  too  high.  I  cannot  attain  unto  it." 
They  are  discouraged.  They  consider 
the  great  requirement,  and  compare 
their  own  small  lives  with  it,  and  are 
dismayed.  The  contrast  distresses 
them,  but  the  impossibility  of  doing 
anything  about  it  distresses  them  still 
more.  If  it  were  only  a  matter  of 
ceasing  to  do  evil  and  learning  to  do 
well,  the  case  would  not  be  so  hope- 
lessly difficult;  but  what  the  Lord 
requires  is  a  new  quality  of  being,  a 
new  series  of  motives,  a  new  way  of 
thinking.  Righteousness,  it  seems, 
consists  not  in  putting  away  our  sins 
only,  but  in  putting  away  our  sin. 
It  demands  a  change  not  in  our  habits 
only,  but  in  our  selves. 

These  people  have  perceived  the 
real  meaning  of  the  new  teaching. 
They  understand  that  Jesus  has  pro- 
posed a  new  definition  of  character. 
230 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

He  has  taken  the  old  commandments 
which  all  respectable  people  have  been 
obeying  and  has  so  interpreted  them 
that  nobody  can  obey  them  completely. 
Before  the  sermon,  they  were  ready  to 
say  with  the  excellent  young  ruler, 
"All  these  things  have  I  kept  from 
my  youth  up."  They  were  ready  to 
pray  with  the  devout  Pharisee,  "Lord, 
I  thank  Thee  that  I  am  not  as  other 
men  are,  extortioners,  adulterers." 
They  had  no  such  petition  in  their 
litany  as,  "God  be  merciful  to  me,  a 
sinner;"  and  they  would  have  resented 
the  suggestion  that  they  ought  to  pray, 
"God  be  merciful  to  me  a  miserable 
sinner."  But  if  extortion  is  to  be 
defined  as  any  taking  of  an  unbrotherly 
advantage,  however  well  within  the 
terms  of  law,  and  if  adultery  is  to  be 
defined  as  any  sensual  look  or  thought, 
the  whole  standard  of  right  living  is 
thereby  changed  tremendously,  and 
their  estimate  of  themselves  is  changed 
with  it. 

The  result  of  such  a  conception  of 
righteousness  is  displayed  with  all 
frankness  in  the  confessions  of  St. 

231 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

Paul.  "Touching  the  law,"  he  says, 
—  meaning  the  letter  of  the  law,  — 
"I  was  blameless."  He  had  never 
murdered  anybody,  nor  stolen  any- 
thing. But  touching  the  new  law,  the 
old  law  fulfilled,  the  heart  of  the  law, 
"Wretched  man  that  I  am,"  he  cries, 
"who  shall  deliver  me  from  this  body 
of  death!"  At  once,  however,  he 
answers  his  own  question:  "I  thank 
God,  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord." 

To  produce  in  the  soul  of  the  con- 
science-stricken hearer  this  hope  and 
confidence  and  gratitude  is  the  pur- 
pose of  the  preacher  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  when  He  says,  "Ask  and 
ye  shall  receive."  The  task  is  difficult, 
the  needed  reformation  seems  impos- 
sible, the  ascent  from  satisfied  respec- 
tability to  true  religion  is  like  climbing 
up  the  steep  face  of  a  straight  cliff, 
but  there  is  help ;  there  is  divine  and 
sufficient  help. 

This  help  is  to  be  had  by  asking. 
The  act  is  emphasized.  We  must  our- 
selves do  something  in  order  to  get  an 
assisting  response.  We  may  not  be 
contented  with  a  passive  mind. 
232 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

There  is,  indeed,  a  "wise  passive- 
ness."  Wordsworth,  with  his  profound 
experience  in  the  appreciation  of  nature, 
advises  it  as  the  ideal  mood  in  the 
presence  of  the  landscape.  We  are 
not  to  be  introspective,  nor  anxious, 
nor  overdesirous  of  results.  We  are 
to  submit  ourselves  to  the  gentle  influ- 
ences of  sky  or  plain  or  sea.  This 
applies  to  nature  what  Christ  applies 
to  our  relation  to  all  life.  We  are  not 
to  be  nervous  about  the  morrow.  We 
are  to  rely  with  confidence  on  the  divine 
care. 

Even  here,  however,  in  the  midst 
of  these  strong  admonitions  against 
worry,  there  is  a  limit  set  to  our  wise 
passiveness.  There  is  even  here  an 
antecedent  condition  of  activity.  If 
we  are  to  have  "all  these  things,"  the 
necessities  of  life,  we  must  seek  first 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  right- 
eousness. There  is,  indeed,  a  benedic- 
tion of  passivity.  It  is  illustrated  by 
the  "great  courtesy  of  God,"  who 
grants  His  rain  and  sun  to  the  just 
and  to  the  unjust.  But  there  are 
better  benedictions  which  the  passive 

233 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

miss.  The  material  blessings  of  food 
and  shelter  depend  on  the  fulfilment 
of  these  social  conditions  which  the 
"kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness" imply.  And  the  spiritual  bless- 
ings of  uplift  and  guidance,  and  moral 
help  and  inspiration  depend  on  asking. 
We  must  not  expect  to  be  delivered 
passively  from  the  bonds  of  our  sins. 
We  must  ask,  we  must  seek,  we  must 
knock.  The  doors  of  the  richest  bless- 
ings are  shut,  and  wait  for  us  to  present 
ourselves  and  request  to  have  them 
opened. 

Thus  Christ's  ministry  of  mercy  was 
not  general,  but  particular.  He  never 
healed  a  town,  nor  a  crowd.  The 
corridors  of  the  pool  of  Bethesda  were 
filled  with  the  sick  that  day  when  He 
said  to  one  man,  "Wouldst  thou  be 
made  whole,"  and  healed  him.  The 
multitude  in  the  Capernaum  street 
was  thronging  about  Him  when  He  said, 
"Who  touched  me  ?"  They  were  all 
touching  Him,  but  the  virtue,  the  heal- 
ing power  which  went  out  from  Him, 
had  no  magical  efficacy  to  heal  every- 
body. He  cured  one  because  she 

234 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

asked.  So  in  Jericho,  when  they  said, 
"Jesus  of  Nazareth  passeth  by,"  one 
blind  beggar  cried,  "Lord,  that  I  may 
receive  my  sight ! "  and  the  Lord  gave 
him  his  sight.  There  were  a  hundred 
men  in  that  town,  beggars  and  blind, 
who  had  no  help  from  Him.  His 
presence  did  not  bless  them.  Because 
they  did  not  ask  Him. 

All  the  time,  God  waits  to  be  gra- 
cious. His  compassions  fail  not.  His 
heart  of  sympathy  goes  out  to  us  in 
our  difficulties,  in  our  struggles.  He 
knows  our  needs.  But  He  has  bound 
Himself,  if  we  may  so  express  it, 
under  the  conditions  of  His  wise  order- 
ing of  our  life.  And  one  of  them  is 
declared  in  the  words,  "Ask,  and  ye 
shall  receive."  Our  part  and  His  part 
in  the  matter  are  here  set  down  to- 
gether. Thus  all  harvests  depend  on 
the  essential  condition  of  planting,  and 
all  business  prosperity  on  the  essen- 
tial condition  of  working,  and  all  social 
happiness  on  the  essential  condition  of 
showing  one's  self  friendly. 

This  asking  is,  of  course,  what  is 
meant  in  the  language  of  religion  by  the 

235 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

act  of  prayer.  It  is  not  necessary, 
however,  that  it  should  take  the  con- 
ventional forms  of  petition.  The  rela- 
tion of  prayer  to  desire  is  simply 
psychological.  The  effect  of  giving  to 
the  act  of  asking  the  form  of  prayer  is 
to  make  it  definite.  It  is  thus  brought 
out  of  the  possible  vagueness  of  unex- 
pressed desire  and  put  into  words, 
and  thereby  made  concrete ;  not  for 
the  sake  of  God,  who  knows  our  neces- 
sities before  we  ask,  and  also  our 
ignorance  in  asking,  but  for  our  own 
sake,  for  the  deepening  of  our  desire. 
We  wish  for  help  against  our  besetting 
sins,  for  strength  to  live  nearer  to  our 
ideals ;  we  wish  for  better  thoughts 
and  better  motives,  for  a  better  self. 
The  wish  is  an  act  of  asking.  But 
we  intensify  the  wish  when  we  put  our 
desire  into  articulate  speech.  For  hu- 
man nature  works  that  way. 

Some  people  may  be  able  to  get  along 
without  it,  but  it  is  a  common  expe- 
rience that  the  divine  condition  is 
better  fulfilled  when  we  kneel  down 
and  ask  in  prayer  for  the  satisfaction 
of  our  needs.  O  God,  help  me  to  meet 
236 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

this  one  particular  daily  temptation, 
which  I  name  before  Thee.  Thou 
knowest  my  weakness,  and  I  know  Thy 
promises  of  strength.  Fulfil  now,  O 
Lord,  these  promises  in  me.  Direct 
the  thoughts  of  my  heart.  Help  me 
not  only  not  to  do  this  evil,  but  not 
to  desire  to  do  it.  Protect  me  against 
my  pleasure  in  it.  Make  me  a  clean 
heart,  O  God,  and  renew  a  right  spirit 
within  me.  This  I  ask,  to-day  and 
every  day,  in  His  name  who  said, 
"Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive." 

Asking,  then,  is  the  condition  of 
receiving.  This  is  one  of  the  everlast- 
ing facts  of  human  life.  The  other  is 
like  it :  Receiving  is  the  sure  conse- 
quence of  asking. 

It  is  like  it,  but  it  goes  beyond  it. 
"Every  one  that  asketh  receiveth,  and 
he  that  seeketh  findeth,  and  to  him 
that  knocketh,  it  shall  be  opened."  It 
is  in  the  present  tense,  because  it  is  a 
matter  of  present  experience ;  and  in 
the  future  tense,  —  "it  shall  be 
opened,"  —  because  it  is  true  eternally, 
an  abiding  promise  of  divine  renewal. 

The    promise    is    stated    in    general 

237 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

terms.  It  assures  no  exact  corre- 
spondence between  the  request  and  the 
reply.  It  gives  no  guarantee  that  if 
we  ask  for  this,  that,  and  the  other,  we 
shall  certainly  receive  this,  that,  and 
the  other.  The  words  of  our  prayers 
are  inadequate,  and  God  does  not 
read  them  according  to  a  literal  inter- 
pretation. The  specifications  of  our 
prayers  are  affected  by  our  ignorance 
of  the  present  and  of  the  future ;  and 
God  attends  to  the  spirit  and  not  to 
the  letter  of  our  petitions.  We  do  not 
know  enough  to  pray  aright.  We 
would  be  answered  according  to  the 
wise  providence  of  God.  We  would 
receive  what  He  would  have  us  have. 
The  chief  apostle  asked,  but  did 
not  receive ;  he  did  not  receive  the 
exact  thing  for  which  he  prayed.  The 
supreme  saint  had  the  same  expe- 
rience in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane. 
He  who  prayed,  "Let  this  cup  pass 
from  me,"  nevertheless  drank  it  to  the 
dregs.  Yet  they  both  received.  They 
both  received  the  blessing  for  which 
they  prayed,  but  in  another  form : 
not  in  its  material  form,  but  in  its 
238 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

spiritual  equivalent.  "Lord,"  they 
cried,  "I  am  too  weak  to  bear  this; 
take  it  away."  And  what  the  Lord 
did  was  not  to  take  it  away,  but  to 
give  them  strength  to  bear  it.  That 
was  the  spiritual  equivalent. 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  every  one  that 
asketh  receiveth.  The  promise  may 
not  be  fulfilled  in  the  lesser  details, 
for  which  we  prayed  because  we  knew 
no  better.  It  is  fulfilled  in  a  benedic- 
tion of  which  the  denied  request  was 
but  a  faint  symbol.  God  gives  us 
more  than  we  ask.  We  knock  and  the 
door  is  opened,  and  we  enter  into 
unexpected  places.  Sometimes  we  are 
disappointed.  But  we  go  on,  following 
the  unseen  guide,  and  presently  we 
come  into  the  paradise  of  perfect  peace. 
We  sought  a  passing  satisfaction,  and 
we  are  made  partakers  of  a  satisfac- 
tion which  no  chance  can  change.  We 
cried  out  for  sight,  but  we  were  blind 
and  did  not  know  what  sight  is ;  at 
first,  the  new  light  hurt  our  eyes,  and 
we  felt  for  the  moment  that  the  cool 
blindness  was  better,  but  only  for  the 
moment.  We  asked  for  help,  and  the 

239 


THE  REENFORCEMENT  OF  RELIGION 

Lord  helped  us  as  the  physician  does,  in 
ways  unexpected  and  beyond  our  under- 
standing, and  painful ;  but  we  received 
help. 

Thus  religion  brings  with  it  not  only 
a  requirement,  but  a  reinforcement. 
It  demands  much,  but  it  enables  those 
who  use  its  privileges  to  meet  its 
demands  with  strength. 


240 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

HAT  reenforcement  of  the  will 
which  is  given  in  religion  for 
the  asking  is  increased  by 
the  means  of  grace. 
For  grace  means  moral  and  spiritual 
strength.  It  is  the  blessing  of  God 
applied  immediately  to  daily  life.  We 
need  it ;  we  know  that  well  enough. 
We  need  increase  of  grace,  that  we 
may  be  enabled  to  encounter  our  temp- 
tations with  success,  to  make  good  use 
of  our  opportunities,  and,  in  general, 
to  live  our  lives  aright.  Grace  is 
made  necessary  by  the  exceeding  diffi- 
culty of  being  good. 

Anybody  who  finds  it  quite  easy  to 
be  good  is  in  a  perilous  position. 
Something  is  the  matter  with  him. 
Either  his  conscience  is  so  dull  or  dis- 
couraged that  it  has  ceased  to  trouble 
him,  or  his  ideal  of  goodness  is  so  low 
that  he  can  reach  it  without  effort. 
In  the  light  of  the  Christian  definition 

243 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

of  character,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult 
to  be  good.  Our  standard  of  right 
may  not  be  so  high  as  it  ought  to  be, 
but  every  day  we  fail  to  reach  it. 
Every  day  we  are  enabled  to  under- 
stand, at  a  long  distance,  that  bitter 
cry  of  St.  Paul  when  he  said,  "The 
good  that  I  would,  I  do  not ;  and  the 
evil  that  I  would  not,  that  I  do."  We 
need  help.  We  need  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  wise  commander,  who, 
finding  the  fight  too  hard  for  him, 
calls  for  reinforcements. 

The  good  Christian,  realizing  that 
it  is  mighty  hard  to  be  good,  will 
bring  to  his  aid  all  possible  assistance. 
He  will  defend  himself,  as  best  he  may. 
If  he  suspects  that  the  road  to  the  left 
is  beset  by  liers-in-wait,  he  will  take 
the  road  to  the  right.  He  will  join 
himself  to  the  protecting  company  of 
others  who  are  on  their  way  to  the  same 
destination,  as  travellers  across  the 
desert  go  in  caravans,  that  their  num- 
bers may  keep  them  from  the  attack 
of  robbers.  He  will  avail  himself,  if 
he  may,  of  power  from  on  high.  He 
will  make  use  of  all  the  means  of  grace. 
244 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

Various  misunderstandings  as  to  the 
means  of  grace  arise  from  three  kinds 
of  confusion  :  a  confusion  of  the  phrase 
with  the  fact,  a  confusion  of  the  irregu- 
lar with  the  invalid,  and  a  confusion  of 
ritual  with  righteousness. 

The  first  confusion  is  of  the  phrase 
with  the  fact. 

The  facts  with  which  we  deal  in  the 
means  of  grace  have  to  do  with  God 
and  the  soul.  And  that  implies  that 
they  belong  to  the  region  of  the  in- 
definable, of  the  mysterious,  of  that 
which  we  can  only  in  small  part  under- 
stand. The  relation  between  God  and 
the  soul  must  be  expressed  in  some 
sort  of  language ;  but  no  words  are 
adequate.  Indeed,  in  dealing  with  this 
matter,  words  are  not  only  inadequate, 
but  misleading ;  for,  of  necessity,  they 
express  the  spiritual  in  terms  of  the 
physical.  It  may  be  possible  to  escape 
this  condition  by  use  of  the  technical 
and  accurate  definitions  of  philosophy, 
but  for...  the  purposes  of  religion  the 
language  of  philosophy  is  not  only 
difficult,  but  foreign.  For  we  naturally 
express  our  religious  faith  and  emotion 

245 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

in  the  words  of  the  Bible,  a  book  which 
contains  not  a  formula  of  philosophy 
from  beginning  to  end.  Accordingly, 
when  we  would  set  forth  in  the  creed 
the  exaltation  of  Christ,  we  say  that 
He  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  It 
is  a  phrase  which  easily  conveys  to 
unreflective  minds  the  idea  of  a  celes- 
tial throne,  on  which  the  Almighty  is 
sitting,  like  a  king.  The  phrase  is 
only  in  a  poetical  or  symbolical  sense 
an  expression  of  the  fact.  When  we 
say,  "The  fact  must  be  this  or  that, 
because  the  phrase  which  describes  it 
is  thus  or  so,"  we  fall  into  error. 

Thus  baptism  is  described  as  regen- 
eration ;  we  are  born  again.  But  when 
we  make  the  description  serve  as  a 
definition,  we  enter  immediately  into 
the  fallacy  of  Nicodemus,  who  said, 
"How  can  a  man  be  born  when  he  is 
old  ?"  A  modern  form  of  this  fallacy 
was  the  position  of  those  who  found 
that  in  some  places  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  word  "regeneration"  implies 
a  moral  change,  and  said,  "How  can 
the  sprinkling  of  a  few  drops  of  water 
effect  a  moral  change  ?"  The  phrase 
246 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

is  in  the  language  of  poetry  and 
symbol.  It  means  that  so  great  are 
the  possibilities  of  blessing  which  are 
involved  in  the  membership  of  the 
church,  that  baptism,  whereby  we 
are  admitted  into  that  membership, 
is  like  a  new  birth. 

Also,  in  the  Holy  Communion,  we 
say  that  we  receive  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ.  But  when  we  try  to  make 
the  fact  fit  the  phrase,  we  fall  into  the 
fallacy  of  the  congregation  at  Caper- 
naum, who  said,  "How  can  this  man 
give  us  His  flesh  to  eat  ?"  Evidently, 
He  cannot,  and  would  not.  The  sen- 
tence is  a  symbol  —  to  us  now  a  remote 
and  difficult  symbol  —  of  participa- 
tion and  intimacy.  A  literal  interpre- 
tation, or  even  a  spiritual  explanation 
of  a  literal  interpretation,  misses  the 
truth.  It  mistakes  the  counter  for  the 
coin.  It  identifies  the  fact  with  the 
phrase.  It  overlooks  the  constant 
habit  of  Holy  Scripture,  which  con- 
tinually speaks  in  metaphor.  The 
bread  is  the  Lord's  body,  the  wine  is 
the  Lord's  blood,  only  as  it  is  said  that 
Christ  sits  at  God's  right  hand. 

247 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

A  second  confusion  is  of  the  irregular 
with  the  invalid. 

These  two  adjectives  as  applied  to 
spiritual  functions  have  very  different 
meanings.  They  imply  altogether  dif- 
ferent results.  In  a  transaction  with 
a  bank,  you  may  present  a  check 
which  misspells  your  name,  and  get 
the  money  for  which  it  calls.  The 
check  is  irregular,  but  that  will  not 
hinder  the  payment.  But  if  you 
present  a  check  which  is  signed  by 
somebody  who  has  no  money  in  that 
bank,  you  get  nothing.  The  check 
is  invalid.  A  like  distinction  governs 
the  ministry  of  the  sacraments. 

Here  are  the  sacraments  of  baptism 
and  of  the  Holy  Communion  admin- 
istered by  two  different  men.  One 
man  has  been  ordained  by  a  bishop ; 
the  other  man  has  been  ordained  by 
a  group  of  his  neighbors.  What  is 
the  difference  ?  It  may  be  expressed 
either  in  terms  of  canon  law,  or  in 
terms  of  divine  providence.  Under 
canon  law,  the  ministry  of  the  man 
who  has  not  been  episcopally  ordained 
is  irregular,  and  his  sacraments  are 
248 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

irregular ;  for  the  canon  law  requires 
a  certain  procedure  of  entrance  into 
the  ministry,  and  recognizes  no  other. 
But  under  the  divine  providence,  the 
blessing  of  God  comes  with  the  sacra- 
ment, however  irregular,  into  the  recep- 
tive soul.  This  has  always  been  ac- 
cepted in  the  sacrament  of  baptism, 
which,  though  administered  irregularly, 
by  lay  people,  is  nevertheless  accounted 
valid.  They  who  come  to  any  ministry 
with  open  hearts,  with  penitence  and 
faith,  find  the  sacraments  the  means 
of  grace.  They  know  it.  They  have 
had  experience  of  blessing.  They  may 
or  may  not  admit  that  the  sacraments 
which  they  receive  are  irregular;  they 
know,  beyond  all  assaults  of  argument, 
that  they  are  valid. 

A  third  confusion  which  hinders  a 
true  understanding  of  the  means  of 
grace  is  of  ritual  with  righteousness. 

This  is  of  all  religious  fallacies  the 
oldest,  —  the  idea  that  God  cares  more 
for  ceremony  than  he  does  for  conduct. 
It  is  the  oldest  and  the  most  per- 
vasive. It  appears  in  the  notion  that 
attendance  at  public  prayers  and  par- 

249 


ticipation  in  sacraments  make  the 
greater  part  of  true  religion.  The 
truth  is  that  in  the  New  Testament 
these  duties  have  to  be  looked  for  with 
a  microscope.  The  emphasis  is  on 
character.  The  call  is  to  live  a  right- 
eous life,  to  keep  the  moral  law,  to  be 
honest,  to  be  truthful,  to  be  a  good 
neighbor  and  a  good  citizen.  These 
are  the  things  for  which  God  cares. 
The  sacraments,  and  all  the  sacra- 
mental rites  which  accompany  them, 
are  means  of  grace.  They  are  directed 
towards  moral  and  spiritual  results. 
They  are  of  value  in  proportion  as 
they  assist  to  bring  such  results  about. 

Thus  the  water  of  baptism,  as  St. 
Paul  says  plainly,  never  saved  any- 
body ;  but  the  answer  of  a  good  con- 
science. The  bread  and  wine  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  are  without  value,  and, 
as  St.  Paul  says,  do  more  harm  than 
good,  unless  they  minister  to  the  moral 
life.  The  test  of  right  religion  is  not 
the  punctuality  with  which  people  go 
to  church,  but  the  kind  of  people  they 
are  in  consequence  of  going  to  church. 

To  these  three  confusions  —  of  the 
250 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

phrase  with  the  fact,  of  the  irregular 
with  the  invalid,  and  of  ritual  with 
righteousness  —  may  be  added  a  mis- 
taken distinction  between  the  sacred 
and  the  secular. 

There  is  a  distinction,  plainly  enough. 
There  is  an  obvious  difference  between 
a  schoolhouse  and  a  church,  between 
the  thirteen  books  of  Euclid  and  the 
thirteen  epistles  of  St.  Paul.  But  when 
we  try  to  put  the  things  of  the  spirit 
definitely  on  one  side,  and  the  things 
of  the  mind  and  of  the  body  on  the 
other  side,  we  are  endeavoring  to 
divide  into  parts  that  which  has  true 
life  only  in  combination.  The  two 
parts  of  hydrogen  in  water  may  be 
separated  from  the  one  part  of  oxygen, 
but  the  water  in  that  condition  is  not 
good  for  drinking.  It  is  not  water, 
but  an  exhibit  of  chemical  elements. 
And  in  like  manner,  the  whole  man  and 
the  whole  life  of  man  go  together. 

The  first  commandment  of  religion 
summons  us  to  love"  God  with  all  our 
heart  and  mind  and  strength,  with  our 
whole  being.  And  the  blessing  of  God 
comes  to  us  with  all  of  these  activities. 

251 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

Thus  in  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John 
the  distinctive  benediction  of  each  of 
the  sacraments  is  promised  in  connec- 
tion with  the  moral  and  social  life.  The 
distinctive  benediction  of  baptism  is  a 
divine  birth,  and  St.  John  says,  "Every 
one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God."  The 
distinctive  benediction  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  a  divine  indwelling,  and  St. 
John  says  :  "If  we  love  one  another, 
God  dwelleth  in  us,  and  His  love  is 
perfected  in  us.  He  that  dwelleth  in 
love,  dwelleth  in  God,  and  God  in 
him."  ^ 

Grace  means  .help  from  God,  and  is 
ministered  in  all  manner  of  ways,  and 
amidst  all  these  differences  is  the  same 
divine  thing.  It  comes  by  the  reading 
of  good  books,  and  by  the  companion- 
ship of  good  friends.  We  know  that 
we  have  received  it  because  we  are 
uplifted,  energized,  directed,  strength- 
ened. It  comes  by  the  sacraments, 
and  its  presence  is  made  known  by  the 
same  evidence.  It  is  not  one  thing  in 
church,  and  another  thing  at  home.  It 
is  not  grace  in  religion,  and  something 
else  in  society.  Everywhere  and  al- 
252 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

ways  it  is  the  same  divine  blessing, 
and  under  all  conditions  it  is  sacra- 
mental and  mysterious,  like  the  breath 
of  the  wind. 

One  of  the  means  of  grace  is  an  en- 
vironment of  expectation.  I  mean 
that  anybody  who  is  trying  to  be  good 
will  be  mightily  assisted  by  keeping  in 
the  company  of  the  good.  One  of  the 
means  of  growth  is  good  ground.  The 
seed  may  be  good,  but  the  parable  of 
the  sower  shows  to  what  different  har- 
vests it  comes  under  different  condi- 
tions. So  one  of  the  means  of  grace  is 
good  neighborhood.  To  this  we  owe 
the  greater  part  of  our  own  righteous- 
ness, to  the  privilege  of  residence  among 
people  who  expect  us  to  do  right. 

The  ecclesiastical  name  of  the  or- 
ganized good  neighborhood  is  the 
church.  The  most  valuable  influences 
of  the  church  depend  upon  the  fact 
that  it  is  an  environment  of  good 
expectation.  Baptism  is  a  means  of 
grace  because  it  admits  people  into 
this  environment.  Thus  it  is  defined 
in  the  church  catechism  as  the  act 
whereby  we  are  made  members  of 

253 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

Christ,  the  children  of  God,  and  in- 
heritors of  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
because  these  are  three  descriptions  of 
the  church :  which  is  the  body  of 
Christ,  the  household  of  God,  and  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  The  answer  to 
the  question,  Precisely  what  is  accom- 
plished in  baptism  ?  is,  By  baptism 
persons  are  admitted  to  the  member- 
ship of  the  church. 

Another  means  of  grace  is  a  decided 
initiative.  This  is  only  a  condensed 
statement  of  the  plain  psychological 
fact  that  if  we  really  desire  to  keep  a 
good  resolution,  we  must  begin  strong. 
We  must  not  only  exercise  our  will  in 
an  emphatic  determination,  and  our 
patience  in  a  resolute  endeavor  to 
admit  no  exceptions,  but,  if  we  are 
altogether  wise,  we... must  make  the 
matter  public.  Thus  we  bring  the 
environment  of  expectation  to  bear 
definitely  upon  our  case. 

Whoever  makes  a  resolve  in  the 
secret  of  his  own  soul  may  break  it 
without  losing  any  respect  other  than 
his  own ;  but  if  we  make  our  good 
resolve  in  the  hearing  of  our  neighbors, 

254 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

then  when  temptation  comes  we  are 
provided  with  reinforcements.  We 
say,  "Now  if  I  do  this  thing  which  I 
said  I  would  not  do,  all  of  my  friends 
will  look  upon  me  with  astonishment, 
and  I  shall  be  ashamed." 

Thus  it  is  that  confirmation  is  a 
means  of  grace.  It  takes  advantage  of 
the  plain  conditions  of  human  nature. 
It  is  the  making  of  a  great  resolution 
in  such  a  manner  that  all  our  acquaint- 
ances shall  help  us  to  keep  it.  Up 
stands  one  among  his  neighbors,  and 
declares  himself  on  the  Lord's  side. 
And  when  he  kneels,  and  hands  of 
benediction  are  laid  on  his  head,  he  is 
manifestly  blessed.  He  receives  power 
from  on  high.  Not  only  the  theo- 
logian, but  the  psychologist,  will  tell 
us  that. 

A  third  means  of  grace  is  the  prac- 
tice of  the  presence  of  God.  I  mean  a 
continual  consciousness  of  the  divine 
nearness,  for  strength,  for  comfort, 
for  serenity  of  mind,  for  guidance,  for 
protection.  Whoever  is  thus  aware 
of  God,  cries  in  temptation,  "Thou, 
God,  seest  me";  and  in  difficulty,  "I 

255 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which 
strengtheneth  me";  and  in  trouble, 
"In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribula- 
tion, but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  over- 
come the  world";  and  in  the  deepest 
grief,  "Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  I  will 
fear  no  evil,  for  Thou  art  with  me." 
And  these  words  of  confidence  bring 
spiritual  results.  They  verify  the  say- 
ing, "The  words  that  I  speak  unto 
you,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life." 
The  same  effects  are  brought  about  by 
prayer,  from  which  we  rise  up,  when 
we  pray  aright,  with  the  sun  shining 
in  our  soul. 

The  word  and  the  prayer  meet  in  the 
Holy  Communion,  which  is  a  means  of 
grace  because  it  enables  us  to  realize 
this  divine  presence.  The  promise  is 
there  fulfilled  which  declares  that  He 
will  dwell  in  us  and  we  in  Him.  God 
is  made  real  to  us  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  Christ  is  made  real  anew 
in  the  breaking  of  the  bread  and  in  the 
pouring  of  the  wine ;  and  when  we 
receive  the  bread  and  wine,  we  receive 
Him  into  our  souls. 
256 


THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE 

For  Christ  comes  in  this  sacrament 
as  our  friend  comes  in  his  letter.  Here 
is  the  written  page,  an  outward  and 
visible  sign,  and  the  page  brings  the 
mind,  the  will,  the  heart,  the  love,  the 
spiritual  presence  of  our  friend.  And 
here  are  bread  and  wine,  bringing  the 
benediction  of  Him  from  whom  they 
come.  And  the  truth  of  this  we  know 
by  our  experience.  We  know  that  we 
have  actually  found  this  sacramental 
feast  nourishing  to  our  souls.  We 
have  come  hoping  for  light  and  power 
and  courage  and  comfort,  and  have 
found  them  all.  As  we  go  away,  the 
consciousness  of  the  presence  of  God 
goes  with  us. 

An  environment  of  expectation,  a 
decided  initiative,  and  the  practice  of 
the  presence  of  God  —  baptism,  con- 
firmation, and  the  holy  communion  ;  we 
know  that  they  are  means  of  grace, 
because  we  have  tried  them  and  found 
them  satisfying.  We  can  recommend 
them.  In  a  world  in  which  it  is  hard 
to  be  good,  they  who  are  wise  will 
look  about  for  help.  And  they  will 
find  it  in  the  means  of  grace. 

s  257 


THE   ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPI- 
NESS 


THE    ATTAINMENT  OF    HAPPI- 

NESS 


HE  result  of  all  this  is  the 
attainment  of  happiness,  here 
and  hereafter. 

Against  the  universal  back- 
ground of  mystery  stand  the  funda- 
mental facts  of  religion  :  the  being  of 
God  and  the  soul  of  man.  They  are 
attested  by  revelation  and  by  miracle  : 
by  revelation,  in  the  uncommon  expe- 
rience of  uncommon  people  ;  and  by 
miracle,  the  manifestation  of  God  in 
uncommon  events,  and  in  the  common 
life.  Revelation  and  miracle  meet  in 
the  supreme  disclosure  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ.  That  disclosure  of  the  being 
of  God  and  of  the  soul  of  man  declares 
the  supreme  requirement  of  religion  to 
be  character;  defined  in  terms  of 
aspiration,  of  motive,  and  of  service, 
and  applied  to  the  temptations  of  the 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  For 

261 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

the  mastery  of  the  evil  and  the  gaining 
of  the  ideal  good,  religion  provides  not 
only  counsel,  but  reinforcement ;  in 
prayer  and  sacrament.  And  the  pur- 
pose of  it  on  the  part  of  God  is  the 
happiness  of  man. 

It  is  true  that  the  Christian  religion 
has  made  a  considerable  contribution 
to  the  stock  of  human  misery.  It  has 
often  aggravated  the  ills  of  life.  It  has 
often  multiplied  them.  To  the  horrors 
of  persecution  it  has  added  the  terrors 
of  conscience.  It  has  darkened  the 
sky.  But  all  this  has  been  a  perver- 
sion of  its  true  meaning.  And  during 
it  all,  in  quiet  households  whose  affairs 
have  no  place  in  history,  it  has  brought 
patience  and  peace  and  comfort.  In 
the  days  of  pagan  persecution,  it  so 
filled  the  hearts  of  the  Christians  with 
great  joy  that  they  were  recognized 
in  the  streets.  The  happiness  of  their 
souls  shone  in  their  faces.  The  Chris- 
tian religion,  mistakenly  understood 
and  mistakenly  applied,  has  afflicted 
the  heart  of  man,  but  its  true  mission, 
abundantly  fulfilled,  is  to  bring  peace 
and  a  serene  mind. 
262 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

With  all  our  differences  of  disposi- 
tion and  of  circumstances,  there  is  one 
thing  in  which  we  all  agree.  We  all 
have  one  desire.  When  the  good  fairy 
came,  in  the  old  stories,  and  offered 
the  hero  three  wishes,  whatever  he 
would  choose,  he  always  wished  for 
the  same  thing.  Wise  or  foolish,  he 
always  wished  for  the  same  thing.  He 
said  to  himself,  "How  can  I  get  the 
greatest  happiness  ?"  He  desired  to 
be  happy.  So  do  we,  also.  Our  com- 
mon and  universal  desire  is  to  be  happy. 

In  the  language  of  religion,  the 
synonym  of  happiness  is  salvation. 
The  words  mean  substantially  the  same 
thing.  To  be  saved  is  to  be  safe  and 
sound ;  it  is  to  abound  in  health  and 
happiness. 

This  happiness  which  in  religion  is 
thus  called  salvation  may  be  desired 
as  a  future  blessing  or  as  a  present 
possession. 

A  generation  ago,  the  prevailing 
desire  of  those  who  spoke  the  language 
of  religion  was  for  salvation  as  a  future 
blessing.  They  were  devoutly  intent 
upon  the  world  to  come.  The  present 

263 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

world  was  regarded  with  indifference 
or  with  hostility.  Favorite  hymns  be- 
gan with  the  proposition  that  "the 
world  is  very  evil,"  and  with  the  reso- 
lution to  have  as  little  to  do  with  it  as 
possible.  "I'm  but  a  stranger  here, 
Heaven  is  my  home.  Earth  is  a  desert 
drear,  Heaven  is  my  home."  A  typical 
figure  of  a  common  mind  was  Chris- 
tian in  the  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  who, 
finding  himself  a  resident  in  the  City 
of  Destruction,  proceeded  immediately 
to  get  out.  He  seems  not  to  have 
thought  for  a  moment  about  starting 
a  Good  Government  Club,  or  a  social 
settlement,  or  even  a  church.  His 
instinct  directed  him  towards  self- 
preservation.  It  did  not  occur  to  him 
that  the  city  might  be  saved.  He 
abandoned  it,  in  haste,  for  the  salva- 
tion of  his  own  soul. 

At  best,  the  present  was  considered 
as  a  preliminary  period,  a  time  of 
preparation  and  probation.  People 
thought  that  life  would  really  begin 
after  death.  Just  now,  under  these 
present  skies,  in  this  antechamber  of 
eternity,  we  are  waiting.  We  are  like 
264 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

players,  expecting  our  turn  to  come 
upon  the  stage,  and  meanwhile  put- 
ting in  the  time  as  best  we  may.  Or 
like  students,  getting  ready  for  an 
examination  which  shall  admit  us  into 
a  life  of  privilege.  The  prevailing 
mood  was  one  of  expectation.  At 
least,  this  was  the  ideal  spirit.  People 
who  found  their  interests  entangled  in 
the  pursuits  and  pleasures  of  this 
present  life  had  an  uncomfortable 
sense  of  wrong,  and  felt  that  they 
ought  to  be  ashamed  of  themselves. 

This  doctrine  of  the  relation  of  the 
world  which  now  is  to  the  world  which 
is  to  come  expresses  a  profound  truth. 
The  present  takes  a  great  part  of  its 
significance  from  the  future.  To-mor- 
row depends  upon  to-day.  "What- 
soever a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap."  Our  whole  life,  present  and 
future,  is  bound  up  together.  This 
is  so  everlastingly  true  that  some  have 
been  led  by  it  to  question  the  possi- 
bility of  a  universal  salvation.  They 
perceive  that  those  who  live  in  certain 
ways  bring  upon  themselves  at  first 
pain  and  then  weakness,  presently 

265 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

serious  and  mortal  sickness,  and  at  last 
the  death  of  the  body.  They  per- 
ceive a  like  process  in  the  mind,  a  sim- 
ilar connection  between  certain  ways 
of  using  or  not  using  or  ill-using  the 
mind,  and  the  sure  loss  of  apprehen- 
sion and  of  appreciation.  People  may 
so  live  that  they  cannot  enter  into  the 
higher  joys.  They  infer  a  like  death 
of  the  soul.  If  one  who  breaks  the 
laws  of  his  body  loses  his  body,  shall 
not  one  who  breaks  the  laws  of  his 
soul  lose  his  soul  ? 

Important,  however,  as  such  con- 
siderations are,  they  no  longer  interest 
us  quite  as  they  did  our  ancestors. 
We  are  intent  upon  the  world  in  which 
we  actually  and  immediately  live.  The 
salvation  for  which  we  greatly  care  is 
not  a  future  blessing,  —  though  we 
care  for  that,  —  it  is  a  present  posses- 
sion. How  to  be  saved  to-day,  how 
to  be  happy  to-day,  how  to  make  the 
most  of  the  opportunity  of  this  day,  — 
that  is  what  we  have  in  mind. 
Whether  for  better  or  for  worse,  that 
is  the  honest  situation. 

Thus  there  is  a  shifting  of  the  centre 
266 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

of  gravity  of  the  religious  life  from 
faith  to  works  ;  or,  rather,  from  a  faith 
which  expresses  itself  in  creeds,  to  a 
faith  which  expresses  itself  in  deeds. 
The  prevailing  purpose  of  the  modern 
church  is  to  increase  the  daily  happiness 
of  men.  The  missionary  goes,  not  as  of 
old  to  rescue  men  from  eternal  damna- 
tion, but  to  increase  both  the  goodness 
and  the  joy  of  the  present  life.  He 
used  to  preach  the  wrath  of  God ;  now 
he  preaches  the  love  of  God  for  every 
living  soul.  There  is  a  new  emphasis 
on  the  social  aspects  of  Christianity. 
The  parish  house  is  a  symbol  of  it. 
The  social  settlement  is  an  illustration 
of  it.  The  aim  of  the  endeavors 
which  are  thus  represented  is  plain, 
practical,  and  immediate.  Here  is 
scant  patience  with  postponement,  and 
no  disposition  whatever  to  alleviate  the 
distress  and  injustice  of  present  con- 
ditions by  telling  people  that  it  will  be 
all  right  after  they  are  dead.  The 
purpose  is  to  make  things  right  now, 
to  bring  the  kingdom  of  heaven  down, 
to  increase  the  common  stock  of  good- 
will and  happiness. 

267 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

But  when  we  come  to  consider  salva- 
tion as  a  present  possession,  and  to  ask, 
"How  may  we  attain  it  ?"  we  perceive 
that  there  are  various  answers.  Every- 
body is  trying  to  attain  it,  but  there 
are  a  great  many  very  different  ap- 
proaches. The  saint  retires  from  the 
world  to  fast  and  pray ;  that  is  his 
idea  of  a  good  time.  The  scholar 
heaps  his  desk  with  books  ;  the  glutton 
heaps  his  board  with  food  and  drink ; 
the  merchant  betakes  himself  to  his 
merchandise,  the  idler  to  his  indolence,  — 
all  for  the  same  purpose.  Along  these 
different  paths,  all  are  trying  to  get  to 
the  same  goal.  And  the  difference 
indicates  different  temperaments,  so 
that  the  joy  of  one  would  be  the  death 
of  the  other.  But  there  is  one  universal 
and  veracious  test.  There  is  one  way 
of  proving  every  endeavor  after  salva- 
tion or  happiness  in  order  to  ascertain 
its  real  value.  This  is  the  test  of 
persistence.  For  it  is  characteristic 
of  true  happiness  that  it  lasts.  It  is 
good  to-day,  but  it  is  not  good  for 
much  unless  it  remains  until  to- 
morrow. If  it  brings  a  present  joy, 
268 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

but  brings  with  it  a  future  regret,  or 
pain,  or  bitterness  of  remorse,  it  is  not 
a  valuable  possession.  And  if  it  oper- 
ates only  under  favoring  but  uncertain 
conditions,  it  is  not  of  any  abiding 
value.  People  used  to  tell  time  by 
sun-dials,  but  the  difficulty  was  that 
the  dial  depended  on  the  shining  of  the 
sun.  The  clock  was  invented  in  order 
to  enable  us  to  tell  time  in  all  weathers, 
and  in  the  middle  of  the  night.  After 
that,  the  sun-dial  became  an  anach- 
ronism, or  a  curious  ornament. 

It  is  accordingly  plain  that  some 
kinds  of  happiness  must  be  counted 
out.  We  may  not  attach  great  value 
to  the  happiness  which  depends  on 
health  of  body ;  for  sickness  comes,  and 
this  excellent  happiness  departs.  We 
cannot  be  saved  by  appetite.  Neither 
may  we  attach  much  value  to  the 
happiness  which  depends  upon  the 
balance  at  the  bank  :  for  riches,  accord- 
ing to  the  old  proverb,  have  long  since 
discovered  the  secret  of  aerial  flight ; 
away  they  go,  and  those  who  have 
relied  upon  them  are  disconsolate. 
Neither  may  we  place  a  very  high 

269 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

estimate  upon  the  happiness  which  is 
bound  up  with  the  integrity  of  the  social 
order,  for  though  the  approbation  of 
the  community  is  a  precious  reward  of 
our  endeavors,  and  the  love  of  friends 
sweetens  all  life,  these,  too,  are  transi- 
tory ;  minds  may  change,  misunder- 
standings may  arise,  death  may  come, 
and  we  may  be  deprived  of  the  things 
in  which  our  life  seemed  to  consist. 
Neither  prosperity  nor  society  can 
save  us. 

We  have  got  to  have  for  our  present 
salvation  a  happiness  which  shall  con- 
tinue in  spite  of  sickness,  and  poverty, 
and  persecution,  and  bereavement.  In 
order  to  be  happy,  we  must  be  able  to 
face  triumphantly  the  heaviest  assaults 
of  pain,  of  disappointment,  of  failure, 
of  distress  of  soul.  Whoever  is  living 
in  a  house  which  may  be  swept  away 
by  any  storm  of  temporal  disaster  has 
built  upon  the  shifting  sand.  You 
recognize  in  these  references  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  The  theme  of  that  sermon  is 
the  salvation  of  the  soul.  It  begins 
with  a  series  of  splendid  sentences  in 
270 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

which  Christ  sets  forth  the  conditions 
of  an  abiding  and  victorious  happiness. 
The  Master  looks  out  over  the  multi- 
tude and  proposes  to  tell  them  how 
to  be  happy.  Some  of  you,  he  says,  are 
poor,  some  are  sad,  some  are  grievously 
tempted,  some  are  persecuted ;  that 
need  make  no  difference.  You  may. 
all  be  blessedly  happy.  You  may  all 
set  the  house  of  your  serene  content 
upon  the  everlasting  rock.  That  rock, 
to  give  it  a  single,  convenient  name,  is 
religion.  The  salvation  of  the  soul 
of  man,  the  invincible  joy  of  the  heart 
of  man,  is  to  be  found  in  religion. 

The  lives  of  good  Christians  to  this 
very  hour  prove  this  assertion.  It  is 
not  an  ecclesiastical  dogma,  nor  a  meta- 
physical proposition.  It  is  a  veri- 
fiable statement,  open  to  common  ob- 
servation. You  must  every  one  of  you 
know  somebody  who  lacks  most  of  the 
customary  means  of  happiness,  and 
yet  is  abundantly  and  abidingly  happy. 
You  must  know  sick  persons  who  are 
marvellously  patient,  and  afflicted  per- 
sons who  are  wonderfully  brave.  And 
you  know,  also,  that  their  explanation 

271 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

of  their  strength  is  given  in  terms  of 
religion. 

But  religion  is  a  large  and  vague 
word.  There  are  two  questions  which 
we  desire  to  ask :  What  have  these 
persons  found  in  religion  which  has 
given  them  this  strong  serenity  of 
spirit  ?  and,  How  have  they  found  it  ? 

What  have  they  found  ?  They  have 
found  the  meaning  of  the  world.  They 
have,  it  is  true,  an  imperfect  under- 
standing of  the  matter,  but  it  is  a  suffi- 
cient understanding.  They  have  dis- 
covered beyond  all  peradventure  that 
this  world  is  the  world  of  God  our 
Father ;  He  made  it  and  maintains  it. 
They  know  that  all  our  life  proceeds 
under  His  providential  ordering.  They 
have  arrived  at  an  invincible  con- 
viction that  things  are  right.  The 
world  is  good. 

And  they  have  found  strength  against 
sin.  They  have  not  escaped  tempta- 
tion, nor  are  they  free  even  from  fail- 
ure. They  are  still  contending  with 
the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil. 
But  they  are  in  receipt  of  reenforce- 
ments.  They  have  been  given  access 
272 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

to  a  new  base  of  supplies.     They  have 
got  the  key  to  an  armory  of  the  soul. 
And  they  are  putting  the  devil  under 
their  feet.     They  are  no  longer  servants 
to     sin.     They     are     living     under    a> 
splendid  declaration  of  independence.  1 
They  are  breathing  the  clear,  invigo-  ; 
rating  air  of  a  new  freedom. 

This  they  have  found  —  the  meaning 
of  the  world,  and  the  mastery  of  the 
soul.  When  we  ask,  How  have  they 
found  it  ?  the  answer  is  that  they 
have  come  into  this  strong  position  of 
understanding  and  of  victory  by  the 
help  of  Jesus  Christ :  by  the  supremacy 
and  by  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ. 

By  the  supremacy  of  Christ  comes 
a  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  the 
world. 

The  supreme  personality  in  the  whole 
course  of  history  is  Jesus  Christ.  His 
place  has  no  parallel.  He  has  entered 
into  all  thought,  all  literature,  all  human 
progress ;  and  to-day,  after  all  the 
centuries,  is  mightier  than  ever.  He  is 
the  Son  of  Man,  the  flower  of  humanity ; 
He  is  the  Son  of  God,  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  divine  nature.  Therefore, 
T  273 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

we  may  take  His  word  as  our  highest 
truth  about  the  world.  He  knows 
better  than  we  do,  a  thousand  times. 
When  He  looks  up  in  the  midst  of  His 
sorrows,  His  disappointments,  His  fail- 
ures, in  the  midst  of  the  profound 
tragedy  of  His  life,  and  speaks  to  God 
as  His  father,  He  assures  us  that  this 
is  a  good  world,  after  all ;  and  we 
receive  His  saying.  Remember  how 
it  was  said  of  a  great  man  that  he  was 
able  to  see  stars  where  his  neighbors 
could  see  nothing  but  gray  cloud. 
That  is  what  Jesus  did.  He  had  both 
sight  and  insight.  He  perceived  with 
the  certainty  of  personal  experience, 
and  declared  with  the  assurance  of 
personal  knowledge,  that  the  love  of 
God  and  the  pain  of  man  are  not  in- 
consistent. Thus  He  revealed  the 
meaning  of  the  world. 

As  by  the  supremacy  of  Christ  comes 
the  revelation  of  the  significance  of 
the  world,  so  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
comes  the  mastery  of  the  soul ;  we 
get  strength  against  sin. 

The  supreme  revealing  act  in  the 
life  of  Jesus  Christ  was  His  death.  It 
274 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

summed  up  all  that  He  did  and  taught, 
and  was  and  is.  .  For  the  death  of 
Christ  showed  His  understanding  of 
sin.  To  Him,  it  was  immeasurably 
serious,  awful,  and  hateful.  In  con- 
tending against  it,  He  was  willing  even 
to  give  His  life.  He  did  not  need  to 
do  it.  He  might  have  lived  in  peace 
and  quiet.  His  perception  of  the 
nature  of  sin  compelled  Him.  But 
He  went,  like  an  errant  knight,  and 
fought  it.  Also,  the  death  of  Christ 
showed  His  love  of  man.  It  was  for 
us  He  suffered,  to  save  us  out  of  the 
misery  and  death  of  sin.  For  love  of 
us  He  climbed  with  unimaginable  pain 
to  those  sublime  heights  of  which  He 
spoke  when  He  said,  "Greater  love 
hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man 
lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends."  And 
thus  revealing  His  hatred  of  sin  and 
His  love  of  man,  He  disclosed  the 
heart  of  God.  That  is  how  God  feels. 
Then  we  understand  that  when  we  sin, 
we  grieve  the  heart  of  God.  God  is 
not  our  "great  taskmaster,"  though 
a  noble  poet  called  Him  by  that  name ; 
He  is  our  Father.  And  in  the  sacrifice 

275 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

of  Christ  is  added  to  the  divine  father- 
hood a  quality  diviner  still.  For  sacri- 
fice is  the  highest  thing  in  life.  To 
love  is  much,  to  love  and  serve  is  more, 
but  so  to  love  and  serve  as  to  forget 
ourselves,  and  give  ourselves  utterly, 
without  shadow  of  reservation,  without 
count  of  cost, — this  is  the  supreme  thing. 
Nothing  is  better  than  this.  The  cross 
revealed  this  in  the  relation  of  God  to 
man.  How  can  we  offend  Him  who 
so  loved  the  world  ? 

Two  kinds  of  confusion  have  obscured 
and  made  difficult  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement. 

One  is  a  confusion  of  fact  with 
philosophy.  The  fact  is  that  Christ 
died  for  our  sins.  The  philosophy  is 
the  explanation  of  the  effectiveness 
of  His  death  to  save  us.  The  fact 
shines  like  the  stars ;  the  philosophy 
varies  like  the  theories  of  the  astron- 
omers. But  the  fact  only  is  of  essen- 
tial importance.  The  other  confusion 
is  of  the  nearer  with  the  farther  side 
of  truth.  The  formula  of  the  farther 
side  is  in  the  words,  "This  is  the 
Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the 
276 


THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  HAPPINESS 

sin  of  the  world."  Here  we  enter  into 
the  mysteries.  But  the  formula  of 
the  nearer  side  is  in  the  words  :  "God 
was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world 
unto  Himself."  The  father  of  the  prodi- 
gal son  needs  not  to  be  reconciled ; 
he  is  ever  waiting  for  the  opportunity 
to  show  his  unchanged  love.  It  is 
the  prodigal  who  is  to  be  reconciled, 
and  this  is  accomplished  when  he  per- 
ceives his  condition,  and  returns  to 
the  welcome  which  awaits  him.  Mys- 
teries, indeed,  remain ;  there  are  hard 
sayings  still  uninterpreted ;  but  in 
that  parable  is  the  atonement  on  its 
nearer  side.  God,  whose  hatred  of  sin 
and  love  of  man  is  revealed  in  the  cross 
of  Christ,  desires  our  allegiance  and  our 
love.  When  we  give  it,  we  are  recon- 
ciled to  Him.  We  enter  into  the  joy 
of  God.  We  experience  the  salvation 
of  our  souls. 


277 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

S  for  happiness  hereafter,  it  is 
mightily  reassuring  to  see  the 
certainty  of  the  saints.  ; 

St.  Paul  has  no  doubt  about 
it.  "We  know,"  he  says.  He  confesses 
that  the  times  are  hard.  We  are 
troubled  on  every  hand ;  we  are  per- 
plexed, persecuted,  cast  down.  But 
we  are  not  distressed,  not  in  despair, 
not  discouraged.  We  perceive  that 
these  hardships  enable  us  to  enter  into 
the  fellowship  of  the  sufferings  of  Jesus 
Christ.  We  are  assisted  to  endure 
these  trials  by  the  inspiration  of  His 
example. 

We  perceive  also  that  these  are  but 
incidents  in  a  life  eternal.  They  are 
the  inevitable  discomforts  of  a  journey 
through  this  world  to  the  world  to 
come.  We  are  able  to  endure  them 
cheerfully  because  we  look  through  and 
beyond  them  to  our  final  destination. 

281 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

Thus  our  Lord,  for  the  joy  that  was 
set  before  Him,  endured  the  cross. 
Thus  our  light  affliction,  which  is  but 
for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more 
exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory, 
while  we  look  not  at  the  things  which 
are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which  are 
not  seen ;  for  the  things  which  are 
seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things 
which  are  not  seen  are  eternal. 

These  words  take  the  doctrine  of 
immortality  out  of  the  realm  of  specu- 
lation, and  bring  it  into  vital  touch 
with  the  working  day.  St.  Paul,  under- 
taking great  tasks  under  conditions  of 
unusual  difficulty,  finds  it  the  very 
breath  of  his  life.  If  we  are  of  a  some- 
what different  mind  to-day,  it  is  for 
the  most  part  the  natural  result  of  a 
reaction.  We  have  come  out  of  a 
time  when  religion  was  preached  as 
pertaining  mainly  to  the  other  world. 
The  supreme  business  of  this  life,  we 
were  told,  is  to  make  ourselves  ready 
for  the  next,  and  the  next  world  was 
set  before  us  in  detail.  In  particular, 
the  miseries  of  hell  were  impressed 
upon  our  minds.  Most  of  us  who  have 
282 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

come  to  middle  age  had  dreadful  mo- 
ments in  our  childhood  when  we 
thought  it  very  likely  that  we  should 
come  at  last  to  that  place  of  torment. 
Now  the  emphasis  of  interest  has 
changed.  The  light  which  shines  upon 
the  stage  of  our  human  affairs  shines  in 
another  place,  and  all  this  side  of  reli- 
gion is  for  the  moment  in  the  shadow. 
Our  supreme  concern  as  Christians  is 
in  the  betterment  of  this  present  world. 
We  do  not  think  once  about  the  life  to 
come,  where  our  fathers  thought  of  it 
a  thousand  times. 

St.  Paul  held  the  two  great  interests 
together.  He  was  greatly  concerned 
about  social  betterment;  he  addressed 
himself  to  the  relief  of  the  poor  of 
Jerusalem,  and  took  up  a  contribu- 
tion for  them  everywhere  he  went; 
his  persistent  purpose  was  to  bring 
justice,  righteousness,  peace,  and  fra- 
ternity into  every  place  where  he  had 
influence.  But  in  all  this  he  found 
himself  strengthened,  compelled,  di- 
rected, encouraged,  by  the  significance 
which  is  brought  into  this  world  by  its 
relation  with  the  world  to  come.  His 

283 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

citizenship,  as  he  said,  was  in  heaven. 
His  business  was  to  found  colonies 
which  should  live  according  to  the  laws 
of  heaven.  The  arrival  of  information 
that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  had  ceased 
to  exist,  —  that,  in  fact,  there  is  no 
heaven  at  all,  —  would  have  affected 
the  mission  of  St.  Paul  as  a  like  piece 
of  tragic  news  would  affect  any  am- 
bassador of  a  foreign  power.  No  doubt 
he  would  have  gone  on  being  good 
and  doing  good  according  to  his  best 
ability,  but  the  heart  would  have  been 
taken  out  of  his  endeavors.  He  would 
have  lost  his  sense  of  divine  mission.  He 
could  say  no  longer  in  the  face  of  imme- 
diate failure  :  "  I  cannot  fail ;  behind 
me  is  the  everlasting  power  of  God." 
This  is  true  still.  We  may  not  think 
so  definitely  of  the  other  world  as  our 
ancestors  did ;  it  may  not  enter  so 
consciously  into  our  common  life,  but 
it  is  as  necessary  to  us  as  the  universal 
air.  We  may  take  it  for  granted,  as  we 
are  accustomed  to  take  many  of  our 
essential  blessings ;  we  may  account  it 
a  matter  of  course  and  give  our  atten- 
tion to  other  matters ;  but  we  per- 
284 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

ceive,  upon  the  least  reflection,  that 
we  cannot  get  along  without  it.  Our 
idea  of  the  meaning  of  our  life,  what- 
ever patience  we  maintain  in  the  midst 
of  disappointment,  whatever  persist- 
ence we  show  in  the  difficult  task  of 
doing  good,  our  subordination  of  the 
material  side  of  the  world  beneath  the 
spiritual,  our  sense  of  values,  our 
strength  and  comfort  in  sorrow,  our 
refuge  in  affliction,  —  all  this  depends 
on  our  assurance  of  the  immortality  of 
the  soul. 

The  only  reasonable  argument 
against  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is 
the  death  of  the  body. 

The  body  dies,  and,  so  far  as  we  can 
see,  all  individual  existence  ceases. 
There  is  no  response.  There  is  no 
manifestation  of  continued  life.  The 
students  of  psychical  research  encour- 
age us  to  believe  that  they  may  even- 
tually bring  light  into  this  deep  dark- 
ness, but  such  light  as  they  have 
brought  thus  far  is  not  enough  to  see  by. 
The  ordinary  evidence  of  our  senses 
denies  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality 
of  man. 

285 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

To  this  denial  an  obvious  reply  is 
that  death  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  all 
facts. 

From  the  beginning  of  time,  death 
has  confronted  life.  So  far  as  the 
death  of  the  body  constitutes  an  argu- 
ment against  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  it  was  as  valid  a  contradiction 
a  hundred  thousand  years  ago  as  it  is 
to-day.  But  it  has  never  prevailed. 
The  argument  is  plain  enough,  and 
makes  its  appeal  to  the  reason  of  every 
man,  but  it  has  never  been  effective. 
It  comes,  indeed,  with  crushing  weight 
in  the  moment  of  affliction.  For  many 
a  grieving  heart  it  turns  the  earth 
and  the  sky  alike  into  a  horror  of 
great  darkness.  But  the  soul  of 
man  recovers. 

Nothing  happens  to  show  that  the 
argument  of  death  is  invalid  in  any 
particular.  There  it  is,  and  we  cannot 
gainsay  it.  But  we  do  gainsay  it. 
The  primitive  man,  contemporary  with 
the  glaciers,  buries  in  the  grave  of  his 
dead  the  symbols  of  his  faith  in  immor- 
tality. Confronting  the  unanswerable 
facts,  he  cries,  "My  friend  is  dead,  but 
286 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

he  shall  live  again  !"  And  this  cry  of 
hope,  of  confidence,  of  victory,  has 
been  repeated  every  day  since  life  and 
death  began.  It  is  evident  that  some- 
thing is  the  matter  with  an  argument 
which  is  at  the  same  time  so  plain  and 
so  everlastingly  unconvincing. 

The  psychologists,  in  their  exami- 
nation of  the  argument,  find  several 
things  the  matter  with  it. 

It  is  criticised  by  Professor  Royce 
on  the  ground  that  it  takes  no  account 
of  the  affirmation  of  individuality. 

Among  the  many  uncertainties  of  our 
life,  one  thing  is  absolutely  sure,  and 
that  is  that  we  are  ourselves.  You 
are  yourself,  and  nobody  else.  No- 
body in  the  world  can  possibly  be  so 
like  you  as  to  be  you.  Philosophy  is 
doubtful  about  things,  and  has  some- 
times denied  the  reality  of  the  visible 
world,  but  it  is  sure  of  persons.  It  is 
sure,  also,  that  personality  is  not 
dependent  on  the  body.  The  body 
perishes  and  is  dissolved  into  its  con- 
stituent elements,  but  the  individual 
cannot  perish. 

The  position  that  death  is  an  argu- 

287 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

ment  against  the  continuance  of  indi- 
vidual life  is  criticised  also  by  Professor 
James,  on  the  ground  that  it  confuses 
the  transmissive  with  the  productive 
functions  of  the  brain. 

The  point  of  the  common  argument 
against  immortality  is  that  there  can 
be  no  thought  without  a  brain.  This 
is  apparently  true  when  we  set  it  along- 
side of  the  proposition  that  there  can 
be  no  steam  without  fire  and  water ; 
the  fire  acting  on  the  water  produces 
steam.  But  it  is  absurd  when  we  set 
it  alongside  of  the  proposition  that 
there  can  be  no  light  without  a  prism. 
The  function  of  a  prism  is  not  to  pro- 
duce light,  but  to  transmit  it.  The 
prism  may  be  broken  into  a  thousand 
pieces,  but  the  light  remains.  Thus 
our  conscious  life  is  associated  with  the 
activity  of  our  brain,  as  the  world  out- 
side our  room  is  associated  with  the 
window.  The  brain  is  the  window 
through  which  we  look  into  the  world 
of  reality.  It  is  our  present  medium 
of  communication  between  our  self 
within  and  the  world  without.  It  is 
a  reasonable  belief  that  at  death,  when 
288 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

this  medium  of  communication  is  dis- 
used, some  other  takes  its  place.  The 
window  opens,  and  out  we  go  into  a 
new  and  better  sight  of  the  real  world, 
into  a  new  and  more  intimate  relation 
with  it.  The  fact  that  there  is  no  more 
window  does  not  signify  the  abolition 
either  of  the  world  or  of  ourselves ;  it 
signifies  only  some  other  point  of  view. 

Turning  now  from  the  only  serious 
argument  against  the  future  life,  —  the 
unconvincing  argument  of  death,  — 
we  find  a  positive  assurance  of  immor- 
tality in  human  nature  and  in  divine 
revelation. 

This  assurance  is  based  in  human 
nature  upon  two  foundations :  upon 
the  expectation  of  the  race,  and  upon 
the  worth  of  the  individual. 

Each  of  these  foundations  has  come 
into  clearer  light  in  our  own  time.  In 
a  day  when  the  philosophy  of  material- 
ism prevails,  the  only  facts  which  count 
for  much  are  those  which  come  within 
the  province  of  the  natural  sciences. 
Facts,  in  order  to  be  facts,  and  espe- 
cially in  order  to  be  arguments,  must  be 
capable  of  weight  and  measurement, 
u  289 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

and  must  respond  to  the  tests  of  the 
laboratory.  Under  such  conditions, 
ideas  are  easily  disregarded,  and  emo- 
tional and  spiritual  phenomena  are 
set  at  naught.  But  the  defect  of 
materialism  is  precisely  in  this  arbi- 
trary solution  of  facts.  The  materialist 
leaves  out  of  consideration  a  great  part 
of  the  actual  world ;  he  omits  the 
inconvenient  facts  which  do  not  agree 
with  his  conclusion ;  and  the  result  is 
that  a  larger  vision  of  life  makes  his 
conclusions  ridiculous. 

Then  we  perceive  that  a  universal 
human  expectation  is  a  fact  to  be  as 
seriously  considered  as  a  universal 
law  of  gravitation. 

There  it  is,  always  and  everywhere 
present  in  the  mind  of  man.  There  it  is, 
triumphantly  confronting  the  physical 
fact  of  death.  It  is  one  of  the  human 
qualities,  one  of  the  permanent  factors  in 
any  accurate  description  of  man.  Man 
is  an  animal  who  expects  to  live  for- 
ever. Now,  a  universal  human  quality 
must  be  the  assurance  of  a  universal 
reality,  or  else  God  has  put  us  to  con- 
fusion. If  man  is  made  expecting  a 
290 


THE  LIFE   EVERLASTING 

life  which  goes  on  after  death,  and  then 
at  death  dies  like  a  weed,  we  are  the 
plaything  of  malignant  forces.  On  the 
contrary,  a  universal  spiritual  fact  is 
like  a  universal  physical  fact ;  it  is 
the  evidence  of  an  everlasting  law  of 
being. 

So,  also,  with  the  worth  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

With  the  discrediting  of  materialism 
we  begin  to  deal  with  the  whole  man. 
In  the  material  realm,  the  eminent 
facts  are  force  and  matter;  in  the 
spiritual  realm  the  eminent  facts  are 
consciousness,  personality,  thought, 
will,  and  love.  And  to  all  this  we 
apply  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation 
of  value.  The  material  facts  persist ; 
on  they  go,  through  manifold  trans- 
formations, into  existence  without  end. 
What  shall  we  say  as  to  the  spiritual 
facts  ?  Shall  oxygen  and  hydrogen 
continue,  while  faith  and  reverence  and 
self-sacrifice  and  honor  and  affection 
perish  ?  "The  idea  of  immortality  is 
an  assertion  of  the  indestructible  worth 
of  the  values  that  characterize  human- 
ity at  its  best."  And  these  values  are 

291 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

not  satisfied  by  any  immortality  of 
lasting  influence,  or  by  any  merging 
of  the  soul  of  man  into  the  soul  of  the 
universe.  They  demand  a  conscious, 
individual  existence.  Justice  and  truth 
and  love  have  no  meaning  apart  from 
persons.  Personality  itself  is  one  of  the 
precious  facts  of  human  life.  Man 
has  been  too  long  in  growing,  through 
the  ages  of  the  universe,  to  live  a  few 
years,  to  make  a  beginning  of  an  end- 
less life,  and  then  perish.  Man  is  of 
too  much  value  to  be  outlived  by  a 
stone  wall,  or  even  by  a  mountain. 

To  these  foundations  of  the  assurance 
of  immortality  in  human  nature,  —  in 
the  expectation  of  the  race,  and  in  the 
worth  of  the  individual,  —  we  add  the 
foundations  which  are  disclosed  by 
divine  revelation.  We  turn  from  the 
common  experience  of  common  people 
to  the  uncommon  experience  of  un- 
common people. 

The  significance  of  this  uncommon 
experience  may  be  expressed  in  one  or 
other  of  two  ways :  we  may  say  that 
there  are  persons  to  whom  God  may 
speak  with  the  expectation  of  being 
292 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

understood ;  or  we  may  say  that  there 
are  persons  who  are  peculiarly  sensitive 
to  the  spiritual  world,  as  others  are 
sensitive  to  the  world  of  music,  of  art, 
or  of  natural  phenomena.  In  either 
case,  we  are  speaking  of  that  special 
perception  of  religious  truth  which  is 
called  revelation.  It  is  plain  that  there 
are  outstanding  men  who  see  more 
than  their  neighbors.  In  consequence 
of  this  sight,  some  of  them  make  dis- 
coveries, some  of  them  put  forth  inven- 
tions, some  of  them  write  abiding 
books.  The  materials  with  which  they 
deal  are  common  to  us  all,  but  they 
handle  them  with  a  conviction  and  a 
result  which  is  beyond  our  power.  It 
is  plain  that  the  uncommon  religious 
people  know  more  about  God  than  we 
do.  They  are  not  always  able  to  give 
clear  reasons  for  their  conclusions ; 
sometimes  the  reasons  which  they  give 
do  not  satisfy  us ;  but  we  perceive 
that  they  have  somehow  come  into 
relation  with  divine  truth  at  first  hand. 
And  what  they  say  has  convincing 
influence  with  us,  for  that  reason. 
Sometimes  the  men  are  uncommon 

293 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

men,  such  as  St.  Paul,  with  his  direct 
perception  of  the  fact  of  the  spiritual 
body.  Sometimes  the  uncommonness 
is  in  the  experience,  as  in  the  case  of 
those  disciples  who  with  their  own 
eyes  saw  the  risen  Lord. 

This  experience  is  at  the  heart  of 
Christian  history.  It  made  Chris- 
tianity possible  and  actual.  The  exist- 
ence of  the  Christian  religion  is  an 
evidence  of  it.  The  Lord  of  truth  and 
life,  the  Son  of  God,  speaks  His  great 
words,  and  does  His  great  deeds,  and 
is  met  with  indifference  and  with 
hostility.  He  comes  unto  His  own, 
and  His  own  receive  Him  not.  Down 
He  goes  day  by  day,  amidst  the  for- 
saking of  friends  and  the  increase  of 
enemies,  into  that  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death  where  the  cross  awaits  Him. 
The  cross  is  the  logical  and  inevitable 
end  of  His  life.  It  sets  the  seal  to  a 
career  of  failure. 

But  the  end  is  only  the  beginning. 
The  disciples,  whom  the  tragedy  of  the 
crucifixion  had  scattered,  who  had 
gone  every  man  to  his  own,  who  had 
lost  heart  and  hope,  suddenly  appear 
294 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

transformed.  They  have  been  changed 
from  cowards  to  heroes.  They  are 
filled  with  a  joy  for  which  articulate 
speech  is  wholly  inadequate,  which  can 
find  no  better  expression  than  the 
tongues  of  Pentecost.  They  have  a 
sense  of  final  victory,  of  absolute  tri- 
umph over  all  the  world,  which  makes 
persecution  insignificant.  It  is  not  only 
one  of  the  most  remarkable,  but  one  of 
the  most  determining  facts  of  history; 
for  it  has  changed  the  whole  face  of 
society.  The  whole  Christian  move- 
ment to  this  day  goes  back  for  explana- 
tion to  the  experience  of  the  disciples. 

They  said,  "We  have  seen  the  Lord." 
They  said  :  "The  strong  desire  of  all 
the  race  is  at  last  answered.  Out  of 
the  regions  of  death  one  has  come  back 
to  tell  us  in  plain  words  that  our  faith 
is  valid.  Christ  is  risen  from  the 
dead ;  we  shall  rise  also.  He  lives, 
and  His  life  is  our  assurance  that  after 
death  the  soul  of  man  goes  on  into  life 
eternal."  This  message  they  brought 
immediately  to  their  neighbors,  and  it 
confirmed  the  universal  human  hope. 

Thus  it  comes  to  us.  We  always 

295 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

knew  that  the  fact  of  death  is  an  uncon- 
vincing argument  against  the  life  of 
the  spirit.  We  perceive  that  our  com- 
mon experience  discloses  the  expecta- 
tion of  the  race  and  the  worth  of  the 
individual.  And  here  is  a  confirma- 
tion of  our  faith.  Here  is  another  fact 
to  set  over  against  the  fact  of  the  death 
of  the  body.  Here  is  a  revelation  of 
God  to  the  soul  of  man.  Christ  says, 
"Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also;  he 
that  liveth  and  believeth  in  Me  shall 
never  die."  The  sight  of  Him,  victo- 
rious over  death  and  alive  forever- 
more,  is  the  final  assurance  of  our 
immortality. 

The  discussion  of  the  elements  of 
religious  believing  and  living  ends, 
indeed,  as  it  began,  with  mystery.  Out 
of  the  mysterious  past  we  came ;  into 
the  mysterious  future  we  go.  And  the 
factor  of  mystery  makes  all  our  equa- 
tions indeterminate.  It  prevents  reli- 
gion from  appealing  to  the  mind  of 
man  with  the  convincing  arguments  of 
logic.  It  removes  the  consideration 
of  religion  from  the  regions  of  science, 
of  mathematics,  and  of  intellectual 
296 


THE  LIFE  EVERLASTING 

certainty.     It  invites  the  emotions  and' 
the   aspirations   to   help   to   solve   the 
problem. 

But  the  problem,  nevertheless,  is 
solved.  Religion,  especially  as  mani- 
fested in  Jesus  Christ,  presents  the  only 
interpretation  of  the  world  which  is 
consistent  with  the  worth  of  man,  and 
satisfying  to  the  soul.  This  is  a  good 
world,  still  in  the  making.  The  debris 
of  construction  confuses  our  eyes,  be- 
cause we  have  only  a  dim  idea  of  the 
complete  plan.  But  the  plan  is  in 
process,  under  the  hand  of  God,  for 
our  good,  for  our  happiness  in  this 
present  life  and  in  a  life  to  come. 


297 


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3 


Conyngton  —  How  to  Help :  A  Manual  of  Practical  Charity 

BY  MARY  CONYNGTON 

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Croly  —  The  Promise  of  American  Life 

BY  HERBERT  CROLY 

"  The  most  profound  and  illuminating  study  of  our  national  conditions 
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Devine  —  Misery  and  Its  Causes 

BY  EDWARD  T.  DEVINE 

"  One  rarely  comes  across  a  book  so  rich  in  every  page,  yet  so  sound, 
so  logical,  and  thorough."  —  Chicago  Tribune. 

Earle  —  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days 

BY  ALICE  MORSE  EARLE 
"  A  book  which  throws  new  light  on  our  early  history." 

Ely  —  Evolution  of  Industrial  Society 

BY  RICHARD  T.  ELY 

"The  benefit  of  competition  and  the  improvement  of  the  race,  mu- 
nicipal ownership,  and  concentration  of  wealth  are  treated  in  a  sane, 
helpful,  and  interesting  manner." — Philadelphia  Telegraph. 

Ely — Monopolies  and  Trusts 

BY  RICHARD  T.  ELY 

"  The  evils  of  monopoly  are  plainly  stated,  and  remedies  are  proposed. 
This  book  should  be  a  help  to  every  man  in  active  business  life."  — 
Baltimore  Sun. 

French  — How  to  Grow  Vegetables 

BY  ALLEN  FRENCH 

"  Particularly  valuable  to  a  beginner  in  vegetable  gardening,  giving 
not  only  a  convenient  and  reliable  planting-table,  but  giving  particukr 
attention  to  the  culture  of  the  vegetables." — Suburban  Life. 

4 


Goodyear  —  Renaissance  and  Modern  Art 

W.  H.  GOODYEAR 
"  A  thorough  and  scholarly  interpretation  of  artistic  development." 

Hapgood — Abraham  Lincoln :  The  Man  of  the  People 

BY  NORMAN  HAPGOOD 

"A  life  of  Lincoln  that  has  never  been  surpassed  in  vividness,  com- 
pactness, and  homelike  reality."  —  Chicago  Tribune. 

Haultain  —  The  Mystery  of  Golf 

BY  ARNOLD  HAULTAIN 

"  It  is  more  than  a  golf  book.  These  is  interwoven  with  it  a  play  of 
mild  philosophy  and  of  pointed  wit." — Boston  Globe. 

Hearn  —  Japan :  An  Attempt  at  Interpretation 

BY  LAFCADIO  HEARN 

"  A  thousand  books  have  been  written  about  Japan,  but  this  one  is 
one  of  the  rarely  precious  volumes  which  opens  the  door  to  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  wonderful  people  who  command  the  attention  of 
the  world  to-day."  — Boston  Herald. 

Hillis  —  The  Quest  of  Happiness 

BY  REV.  NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS 

"  Its  whole  tone  and  spirit  is  of  a  sane,  healthy  optimism." — Phila- 
delphia Telegraph. 

Hillquit  —  Socialism  in  Theory  and  Practice 

BY  MORRIS  HILLQUIT 

"An  interesting  historical  sketch  of  the  movement."  —  Newark  Even- 
ing News. 

Hodges  —  Everyman's  Religion 

BY  GEORGE  HODGES 

"  Religion  to-day  is  preeminently  ethical  and  social,  and  such  is  the 
religion  so  ably  and  attractively  set  forth  in  these  pages." — Boston 
Herald. 

Home  —  David  Livingstone 

BY  SILVESTER  C.  HORNE 

The  centenary  edition  of  this  popular  work.  A  clear,  simple,  narra- 
tive biography  of  the  great  missionary,  explorer,  and  scientist. 

S 


Hunter — Poverty 

BY  ROBERT  HUNTER 

"  Mr.  Hunter's  book  is  at  once  sympathetic  and  scientific.  He  brings 
to  the  task  a  store  of  practical  experience  in  settlement  work  gathered 
in  many  parts  of  the  country."  — Boston  Transcript. 

Hunter  —  Socialists  at  Work 

BY  ROBERT  HUNTER 

"  A  vivid,  running  characterization  of  the  foremost  personalities  in  the 
Socialist  movement  throughout  the  world."  —  Review  of  Reviews. 

Jefferson  —  The  Building  of  the  Church 

BY  CHARLES  E.  JEFFERSON 
"  A  book  that  should  be  read  by  every  minister." 

King  —  The  Ethics  of  Jesus 

BY  HENRY  CHURCHILL  KING 

"  I  know  no  other  study  of  the  ethical  teaching  of  Jesus  so  scholarly, 
so  careful,  clear  and  compact  as  this."  —  G.  H.  PALMER,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. 

King  —  Rational  Living 

BY  HENRY  CHURCHILL  KING 

"An  able  conspectus  of  modern  psychological  investigation,  viewed 
from  the  Christian  standpoint." — Philadelphia  Public  Ledger. 

London  —  The  War  of  the  Classes 

BY  JACK  LONDON 

"  Mr.  London's  book  is  thoroughly  interesting,  and  his  point  of  view 
is  very  different  from  that  of  the  closest  theorist." — Springfield  Repub- 
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London  —  Revolution  and  Other  Essays 

BY  JACK  LONDON 
"  Vigorous,  socialistic  essays,  animating  and  insistent." 

Lyon  —  How  to  Keep  Bees  for  Profit 

BY  EVERETT  D.  LYON 

"  A  book  which  gives  an  insight  into  the  life  history  of  the  bee  family, 
as  well  as  telling  the  novice  how  to  start  an  apiary  and  care  for  it."  — 
Country  Life  in  America. 

6 


McLennan  —  A  Manual  of  Practical  Farming 

BY  JOHN  MCLENNAN 

"The  author  has  placed  before  the  reader  in  the  simplest  terms  a 
means  of  assistance  in  the  ordinary  problems  of  fanning."  —  National 
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Mabie  —  William  Shakespeare:  Poet,  Dramatist,  and  Man 

BY  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE 
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Mahaff y  —  Rambles  and  Studies  in  Greece 

BY  J.  P.  MAHAFFY 

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Mathews  —  The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order 

BY  SHAILER  MATHEWS 

"  The  book  throughout  is  characterized  by  good  sense  and  restraint. 
...  A  notable  book  and  one  that  every  Christian  may  read  with 
profit."  —  The  Living  Church. 

Mathews  —  The  Gospel  and  the  Modern  Man 

BY  SHAILER  MATHEWS 

"  A  succinct  statement  of  the  essentials  of  the  New  Testament."  — 
Service. 

Patten  —  The  Social  Basis  of  Religion 

BY  SIMON  N.  PATTEN 
"  A  work  of  substantial  value  "  —  Continent. 

Peabody  —  The  Approach  to  the  Social  Question 

BY  FRANCIS  GREENWOOD  PEABODY 

"This  book  is  at  once  the  most  delightful,  persuasive,  and  sagacious 
contribution  to  the  subject."  —  Louisville  Courier- Journal. 

Pierce  — The  Tariff  and  the  Trusts 

BY  FRANKLIN  PIERCE 

"  An  excellent  campaign  document  for  a  non-protectionist."  —  Inde- 
pendent. 

Rauschenbusch  —  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis 

BY  WALTER  RAUSCHENBUSCH 

"  It  is  a  book  to  like,  to  learn  from,  and  to  be  charmed  with."  — 
New  York  Times. 

7 


Riis  —  The  Making  of  an  American 

BY  JACOB  RIIS 

"  Its  romance  and  vivid  incident  make  it  as  varied  and  delightful  as 
any  romance."  — Publisher's  Weekly. 

Riis  —  Theodore  Roosevelt,  the  Citizen 

BY  JACOB  RIIS 
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Ryan  —  A  Living  Wage ;  Its  Ethical  and  Economic  Aspects 

BY  REV.  J.  A.  RYAN 

"The  most  judicious  and  balanced  discussion  at  the  disposal  of  the 
general  reader."  —  World  To-day. 

St.  Maur  —  A  Self-supporting  Home 

BY  KATE  V.  ST.  MAUR 

"  Each  chapter  is  the  detailed  account  of  all  the  work  necessary  for 
one  month  —  in  the  vegetable  garden,  among  the  small  fruits,  with  the 
fowls,  guineas,  rabbits,  and  in  every  branch  of  husbandry  to  be  met 
with  on  the  small  farm."  —  Louisville  Courier- Journal. 

Sherman — What  is  Shakespeare? 

BY  L.  A.  SHERMAN 

"  Emphatically  a  work  without  which  the  library  of  the  Shakespeare 
student  will  be  incomplete."  — Daily  Telegram. 

Sidgwick  —  Home  Life  in  Germany 

BY  A.  SIDGWICK 
"A  vivid  picture  of  social  life  and  customs  in  Germany  to-day." 

Smith  —  The  Spirit  of  American  Government 

BY  J.  ALLEN  SMITH 

"Not  since  Bryce's  'American  Commonwealth'  has  a  book  been 
produced  which  deals  so  searchingly  with  American  political  institutions 
and  their  history."  —  New  York  Evening  Telegram. 

Spargo  —  Socialism 

BY  JOHN  SPARGO 

"  One  of  the  ablest  expositions  of  Socialism  that  has  ever  been 
written."  —  New  York  Evening  Call. 

8 


Tarbell — History  of  Greek  Art 

BY  T.  B.  TARBELL 

"  A  sympathetic  and  understanding  conception  of  the  golden  age  oi 
art." 

Valentine  —  How  to  Keep  Hens  for  Profit 

BY  C.  S.  VALENTINE 

"Beginners  and  seasoned  poultrymen  will  find  in  it  much  of  value." 
—  Chicago  Tribune. 

Van  Dyke  —  The  Gospel  for  a  World  of  Sin 

BY  HENRY  VAN  DYKE 

"One  of  the  basic  books  of  true  Christian  thought  of  to-day  and  of 
all  times."  — Boston  Courier. 

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BY  HENRY  VAN  DYKE 

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America.  It  compares  favorably  with  Bryce's  'American  Common- 
wealth.' "  — Philadelphia  Press. 

Veblen  —  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 
BY  THORSTEIN  B.  VEBLEN 

"The  most  valuable  recent  contribution  to  the  elucidation  of  this 
subject."  —  London  Times. 

Wells  — New  Worlds  for  Old 

BY  H.  G.  WELLS 

"  As  a  presentation  of  Socialistic  thought  as  it  is  working  to-day,  this 
is  the  most  judicious  and  balanced  discussion  at  the  disposal  of  the 
general  reader."  —  World  To-day. 

White  — The  Old  Order  Ghangeth 

BY  WILLIAM  ALLEN  WHITE 

"  The  present  status  of  society  in  America.  An  excellent  antidote  to 
the  pessimism  of  modern  writers  on  our  social  system."  —  Baltimore 
Sun. 

9 


THE  MACMILLAN  FICTION  LIBRARY 


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Allen  —  A  Kentucky  Cardinal 
BY  JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

"A  narrative,  told  with  naive  simplicity,  of  how  a  man  who  was 
devoted  to  his  fruits  and  flowers  and  birds  came  to  fall  in  love  with  a 
fair  neighbor."  — New  York  Tribune. 

Allen  —  The  Reign  of  Law        A  Tale  of  the  Kentucky  Hempfields 

BY  JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

"  Mr.  Allen  has  style  as  original  and  almost  as  perfectly  finished  as 
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Atherton  —  Patience  Sparhawk 
BY  GERTRUDE  ATHERTON 

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BY  RICHARD  WASHBURN  CHILD 

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fine."  — Daily  News. 

Crawford  —  The  Heart  of  Rome 

BY  MARION  CRAWFORD 
"A  story  of  underground  mysterie." 

Crawford  —  Fair  Margaret:  A  Portrait 

BY  MARION  CRAWFORD 

"A  story  of  modern  life  in  Italy,  visualizing  the  country  and  its 
people,  and  warm  with  the  red  blood  of  romance  and  melodrama."  — 
Boston  Transcript. 

10 


Davis — A  Friend  of  Caesar 

BY  WILLIAM  STEARNS  DAVIS 

"  There  are  many  incidents  so  vivid,  so  brilliant,  that  they  fix  them- 
selves in  the  memory."  —  NANCY  HUSTON  BANKS  in  The  Bookman. 

Drummond  —  The  Justice  of  the  King 

BY  HAMILTON  DRUMMOND 

"  Read  the  story  for  the  sake  of  the  living,  breathing  people,  the  ad- 
ventures, but  most  for  the  sake  of  the  boy  who  served  love  and  the 
King."  —  Chicago  Record-Herald. 

Elizabeth  and  Her  German  Garden 

"  It  is  full  of  nature  in  many  phases  —  of  breeze  and  sunshine,  of  the 
glory  of  the  land,  and  the  sheer  joy  of  living."  — New  York  Times. 

Gale  —  Loves  of  Pelleas  and  Etarre 

BY  ZONA  GALE 

"...  full  of  fresh  feeling  and  grace  of  style,  a  draught  from  the 
fountain  of  youth." — Outlook. 

Herrick  —  The  Common  Lot 

BY  ROBERT  HERRICK 

"A  story  of  present-day  life,  intensely  real  in  its  picture  of  a  young 
architect  whose  ideals  in  the  beginning  were,  at  their  highest,  aesthetic 
rather  than  spiritual.  It  is  an  unusual  novel  of  great  interest." 

London  —  Adventure 

BY  JACK  LONDON 

"  No  reader  of  Jack  London's  stories  need  be  told  that  this  abounds 
with  romantic  and  dramatic  incident." — Los  Angeles  T'ibune. 

London  —  Burning  Daylight 

BY  JACK  LONDON 
"Jack  London  has  outdone  himself  in  'Burning  Daylight.'"  —  The 

Springfield  Union. 

Loti  —  Disenchanted 

BY  PIERRE  LOTI 

"  It  gives  a  more  graphic  picture  of  the  life  of  the  rich  Turkish  women 
of  to-day  than  anything  that  has  ever  been  written."  —Brooklyn  Daily 
Eagle. 

ii 


Lucas  —  Mr.  Ingleside 
BY  E.  V.  LUCAS 

"  He  displays  himself  as  an  intellectual  and  amusing  observer  of  life's 
foibles  with  a  hero  characterized  by  inimitable,  kindness  and  humor." 
—  The  Independent. 

Mason  —  The  Four  Feathers 

BY  A.  E.  W.  MASON 

"'The  Four  Feathers'  is  a  first-rate  story,  with  more  legitimate 
thrills  than  any  novel  we  have  read  in  a  long  time."  — New  York  Press. 

Norris  —  Mother 

BY  KATHLEEN  NORRIS 
"  Worth  its  weight  in  gold."  —  Catholic  Columbian. 

Oxenham  —  The  Long  Road 

BY  JOHN  OXENHAM 

" '  The  Long  Road '  is  a  tragic,  heart-gripping  story  of  Russian  politi- 
cal and  social  conditions."  —  The  Craftsman. 

Pryor  —  The  Colonel's  Story 

BY  MRS.  ROGER  A.  PRYOR 

"The  story  is  one  in  which  the  spirit  of  the  Old  South  figures  largely; 
adventure  and  romance  have  their  play  and  carry  the  plot  to  a  satisfy- 
ing end." 

Remington  —  Ermine  of  the  Yellowstone 

BY  JOHN  REMINGTON 

"A  very  original  and  remarkable  novel  wonderful  in  its  vigor  and 
freshness." 

Roberts  —  Kings  in  Exile 

BY  CHARLES  G.  D.  ROBERTS 

"  The  author  catches  the  spirit  of  forest  and  sea  life,  and  the  reader 
comes  to  have  a  personal  love  and  knowledge  of  our  animal  friends." 
— Boston  Globe. 

Robins  —  The  Convert 

BY  ELIZABETH  ROBINS 

" '  The  Convert '  devotes  itself  to  the  exploitation  of  the  recent  suf- 
fragist movement  in  England.  It  is  a  book  not  easily  forgotten,  by  any 
thoughtful  reader." — Chicago  Evening  Post. 

12 


Robins — A  Dark  Lantern 

BY  ELIZABETH  ROBINS 

A  powerful  and  striking  novel,  English  in  scene,  which  takes  an  essen- 
tially modern  view  of  society  and  of  certain  dramatic  situations. 

Ward  —  David  Grieve 

BY  MRS.  HUMPHREY  WARD 

"  A  perfect  picture  of  life,  remarkable  for  its  humor  and  extraordinary 
success  at  character  analysis." 

Wells  —  The  Wheels  of  Chance 

BY  H.  G.  WELLS 

"  Mr.  Wells  is  beyond  question  the  most  plausible  romancer  of  the 
tune."  —  The  New  York  Tribune. 


THE  MACMILLAN  JUVENILE  LIBRARY 


This  collection  of  juvenile  books  contains  works  of  standard  quality, 
on  a  variety  of  subjects  —  history,  biography,  fiction,  science,  and  poetry 
—  carefully  chosen  to  meet  the  needs  and  interests  of  both  boys  and 
girls.  

Each  volume,  cloth,  12mo,  50  cents  net;  postage,  10  cents  extra 


Altsheler  —  The  Horsemen  of  the  Plains 

BY  JOSEPH  A.  ALTSHELER 

"  A  story  of  the  West,  of  Indians,  of  scouts,  trappers,  fur  traders,  and, 
in  short,  of  everything  that  is  dear  to  the  imagination  of  a  healthy 
American  boy." — New  York  Sun. 

Bacon  —  While  Caroline  Was  Growing 

BY  JOSEPHINE  DASKAM  BACON 

"  Only  a  genuine  lover  of  children,  and  a  keenly  sympathetic  observer 
of  human  nature,  could  have  given  us  a  book  as  this." — Boston  Herald. 

Carroll  —  Alice's  Adventures,  and  Through  the  Looking  Glass 

BY  LEWIS  CARROLL 
"  One  of  the  immortal  books  for  children." 

Dix  —  A  Little  Captive  Lad 

BY  MARIE  BEULAH  Drx 

"The  human  interest  is  strong,  and  children  are  sure  to  like  it."  — 
Washington  Times. 

13 


Greene  —  Pickett's  Gap 

BY  HOMER  GREENE 

"  The  story  presents  a  picture  of  truth  and  honor  that  cannot  fail  to 
have  a  vivid  impression  upon  the  reader."  —  Toledo  Blade. 

Lucas  —  Slowcoach 

BY  E.  V.  LUCAS 

"The  record  of  an  English  family's  coaching  tour  in  a  great  old- 
fashioned  wagon.  A  charming  narrative,  as  quaint  and  original  as  its 
name." — Booknews  Monthly. 

Mabie  —  Book  of  Christmas 
BY  H.  W.  MABIE 

"  A  beautiful  collection  of  Christmas  verse  and  prose  in  which  all  the 
old  favorites  will  be  found  in  an  artistic  setting."  —  The  St.  Louis  Mir- 
ror. 

Major  —  The  Bears  of  Blue  River 

BY  CHARLES  MAJOR 
"An  exciting  story  with  all  the  thrills  the  title  implies." 

Major  —  Uncle  Tom  Andy  Bill 

BY  CHARLES  MAJOR 

"A  stirring  story  full  of  bears,  Indians,  and  hidden  treasures."  — 
Cleveland  Leader. 

Nesbit  —  The  Railway  Children 

BY  E.  NESBIT 

"A  delightful  story  revealing  the  author's  intimate  knowledge  of 
juvenile  ways."  —  The  Nation. 

Whyte  —  The  Story  Book  Girls 

BY  CHRISTINA  G.  WHYTE 

"A  book  that  all  girls  will  read  with  delight  —  a  sweet,  wholesome 
story  of  girl  life." 

Wright  —  Dream  Fcfc  Story  Book 
BY  MABEL  OSGOOD  WRIGHT 

"  The  whole  book  is  delicious  with  its  wise  and  kindly  humor,  its  just 
perspective  of  the  true  value  of  things." 

Wright  — Aunt  Jimmy's  Will 

BY  MABEL  OSGOOD  WRIGHT 

"  Barbara  has  written  no  more  delightful  book  than  this." 

14 


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